Norway to build bomb shelters amid growing threat from Russia

The Norwegian government proposed on Jan. 10 to build new bomb shelters and adopt over 100 other measures to bolster civil preparedness amid Russian aggression in Ukraine and rising global security challenges.

Russia's all-out war against Ukraine and its increasingly belligerent rhetoric toward the West prompted warnings across NATO about a possible clash with Moscow in the coming years. NATO member Norway shares a 200-kilometer-long (over 120 miles) border with Russia in the Arctic Circle.

Norway's new total preparedness report instructs the government to ask the parliament to repeal a 1998 decision to halt the construction of bomb shelters and construct new ones.

The new shelters will be built in complexes larger than 1,000 square meters. Some will be designed to withstand conventional attacks, while others should protect the population against radioactive or chemical weapons.

The government will also increase the number of Civil Defense conscripts from 8,000 to 12,000 over the next eight years, set up emergency food storages to last three months, propose compulsory civilian service during a security crisis or war, and draft preparedness plans and strategies.

The report was compiled in a "serious security situation characterized by Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine, the war in the Middle East, and the global competition between great powers over military, political, economic, and technological dominance," the Norwegian government said in a statement.

"This is a turning point for Norway's total civil preparedness. We are leaving behind the period we had lived in since the 1990s after the fall of the (Berlin) Wall when the preparedness was based on stable peace," Justice Minister Emile Enger Mehl said.

"Going forward, we must prepare for a new era."

Other countries in Russia's vicinity have moved to bolster their preparedness in the event of a conflict. Lithuania drafted evacuation plans to relocate a quarter of its population in the case of war.

In light of Russia's war against Ukraine, civil preparedness measures have been under review also in Latvia and Estonia.

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The Kyiv IndependentMartin Fornusek