Russian threats revive old nuclear fears in central Europe
Fighting around Ukraine’s nuclear power installations and Russia’s threats to use nuclear weapons have reawakened nuclear fears in Europe
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Two stories beneath a modern steel production plant on Warsaw's northern edge lies an untouched Cold War relic: a shelter containing gas masks, stretchers, first aid kits and other items meant to help civil defense leaders survive and guide rescue operations in case of nuclear attack or other disasters.
A map of Europe on a wall still shows the Soviet Union — and no independent Ukraine. Old boots and jackets give off a musty odor. A military field switchboard warns: “Attention, your enemy is listening.”
Until now, nobody had seriously considered that the rooms built in the 1950s — and now maintained as a “historical curiosity” by the ArcelorMittal Warszawa plant, according to spokeswoman Ewa Karpinska — might one day be used as a shelter again. But as Russia pounds Ukraine, with shelling around a nuclear power plant and repeated Russian threats to use a nuclear weapon, the Polish government ordered an inventory this month of the 62,000 air raid shelters in the country.
