Situated in a down-at-heel part of Helsinki and 150 kilometres from the Russian border, the Merihaka bunker is entered via a square-glass structure in a paved square. He is speaking 20 metres below the surface in a cavernous room carved out of Finland’s 1.8 billion-year-old bedrock and painted white.īehind him is a large, thick metal door designed to withstand the blast from a nuclear bomb, and behind that is another set of doors that seal off the underground caverns from radiation and chemical agents. “People have not been paying attention to our shelters for decades, using them as storage, but really the Ukraine war made them think about preparedness for themselves and their families,” said Petri Parviainen, Helsinki’s civil defence unit chief.

Tomi Rask, a preparedness teacher from Finland's civil defence unit, next to bunks in the Merihaka shelter, Helsinki. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Finland’s application for Nato membership and fears of threats of mass destruction have led citizens in its capital to clear out the clutter from their bomb shelters in preparation for what may follow.įinland has, since 1945, built enough bunkers to shelter 4.4 million people, just a million shy of its total population. Helsinki is well placed should a nuclear attack materialise, with fully functioning underground shelters that are not only secure but also seek to offer some normality for those forced to seek refuge.

Facts about the nuclear fallout shelter