“For a long time, there was a widespread belief in Germany that war was not a scenario for which we needed to prepare,” Ralph Tiesler, the head of the Federal Office of Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance, said in a recent interview as reported by The Guardian. Germany cannot rely on building new bunker facilities in time so Tiesler’s agency is working on plans to transform tunnels, metro stations, underground garages, car parks and the basements of public buildings into shelters. Poland, which borders Russia and Ukraine, plans to spend almost 5% of GDP on defense this year, the more than any of its NATO partners, the BBC reported last month.
Author: Deirdre Bardolf
Published at: 2025-06-07 22:00:19
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