German authorities are drawing up plans to convert public buildings and metro stations into bomb shelters in response to the growing risk of a direct war with Russia.
The Federal Office for Civil Protection is looking into public buildings that could be converted into bunkers and plans to develop an app to help the public find these shelters, the Telegraph reported Monday.
Germany only has enough public shelters to house about 500,000 people, falling far short of its population of 84.4 million.
The German public would also be encouraged to set up shelters at home, such as in basements. Germany has been scaling back its public bunker network since 2007, when the authorities decided they were no longer necessary.
But Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, Moscow’s hybrid war campaign on Europe and Putin’s threats to attack countries giving armed support to Kyiv have forced a rethink.
There are currently only 579 public shelters in Germany – which has a population of 84.4 million – and they only have enough space for around half a million people.
Ralph Tiesler, the head of the Federal Office for Civil Protection, has warned that it could take an entire generation to build a new bunker network, creating a need for quicker solutions.
Officials have responded by starting to create a list of metro stations, offices and public buildings that could be used as shelters in an emergency.
Germany’s Christian Democrats (CDU) party has criticized Germany’s lack of preparedness for Russian air attacks and called for the new bunkers to be installed as soon as possible.
“Even though we hope that this situation doesn’t arise, we must be prepared to protect the public in the event of an emergency,” said CDU MP Andrea Lindholz. “We need to significantly increase the capacity in Germany.”
Tensions between the West and Russia have significantly escalated in recent days after the US and UK allowed Ukraine to launch their long-range ATACM and Storm Shadow missiles deeper into western Russia, a move that Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly warned marks a major red line that could provoke a nuclear response.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz declared last week that Germany would not send Ukraine any of its long-range Taurus missiles, citing the risk of escalating war further.
Putin responded to the attacks by announcing Moscow fired a new kind of hypersonic medium-range ballistic missile, called Oreshnik, at a Ukrainian military facility last week.
And former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev warned that the new Oreshnik missile could cause “unacceptable” damage to major European cities in just a few minutes and would be “impossible” to intercept.
“Europe is wondering what damage the system can cause if the heads are nuclear, whether it is possible to shoot down these missiles and how quickly the missiles can reach the capitals of the Old World,” Medvedev said Sunday on Telegram.
“The answer: the damage is unacceptable, it is impossible to shoot down with modern means and we are talking about minutes.”
Meanwhile, it was revealed Monday that US and NATO officials suggested Joe Biden “could return nuclear weapons to Ukraine that were taken from it after the fall of the Soviet Union” which could serve as an “instant and enormous deterrent” against Russia, according to the New York Times.