Giant bomb shelters: Finland attracts countries seeking safety

Mayors of Ukrainian cities visiting Finland's capital took photos of the interior of a huge cave carved into the rock beneath the Finnish capital, observing the size and possibilities of a space that can accommodate 6,000 people.

They are among around 800 foreign delegations to visit the Merihaka civilian shelter in Helsinki - the largest of the country's dual-use shelters and now an important showcase for Finnish companies looking to export to buyers concerned about the war in Ukraine and, increasingly, the conflict with Iran.

At 71,000 cubic meters, the shelter has approximately the volume of a seven-story office building. It was built in 2003 and has sports fields, a gym and a children's playground 25 meters underground, which are used daily.

If necessary in an emergency, it can be retrofitted with bunk storage, water tanks and portable toilets within 72 hours.

Growth potential
In addition to being a testament to Finland's painful history with neighboring Russia during World War II, the construction of these shelters remains mandatory under residential and commercial buildings of a certain size.

With this requirement, Finnish companies specialize in the construction and maintenance of these shelters, such as the installation and maintenance of radiation-proof doors, ventilation and emergency power equipment, as well as communication and sewage networks.

Foreign politicians, administrators and companies such as oil giant Saudi Aramco have requested information or visits, officials and companies involved said.

Giant bomb shelters: Finland attracts countries seeking safety - Reuters
The Resilience Center Finland, an export body set up in March, said Finnish security and defense exports amount to tens of billions of euros, with shelter sales totaling around a dozen million euros, showing significant growth potential.

"Within two years, we will not need to compete fiercely with our competitors to win a contract. Instead, very soon it will be a question of running out of capacity," said Ilkka Kivisaari, CEO of Finnish-Swiss-owned Verona Shelters Group, citing high demand in countries such as Poland and Germany and strong interest from the Middle East.

Gulf Interest
Merihaka is among 48 large and 5,500 small shelters in Helsinki - among 50,500 built across the country, the legacy of an attempted Soviet invasion during the Second World War.

At the entrance of another shelter in the city, with capacity for 3,800 people, Juha Simola, CEO of the Finnish group Temet, arrived directly from the Czech Republic after an export promotion trip led by the President of Finland, Alexander Stubb.

He was demonstrating shelter technology to visitors from Saudi Aramco, the world's biggest oil exporter, and said he had also received interest from other parts of the Gulf during the war in Iran.

"There was a big impact in Abu Dhabi and I received a call from there asking me to come quickly," Simola told Reuters, without giving further details.

Giant bomb shelters: Finland attracts countries seeking safety - Reuters
He said his company was building a factory in the United Arab Emirates, where he said hundreds of shelters would be built.

Temet, which has been in business for 70 years, expects 80% of its sales in the coming years to come from exports, said Simola.

Although Temet and Verona are the largest Finnish companies operating in the shelter solutions sector, there are several smaller companies specializing in specific areas such as armored doors and communications.

Bomb-proof sports complex
The construction of a bomb shelter is mandatory in buildings larger than 1,200 square meters, said Pauliina Eskola, head of the Rescue Department at the Finnish Ministry of the Interior, emphasizing the need for regulation and quality.

The cost of a shelter under a new apartment building in Finland, paid by the building owner, varies between 1.5% and 4% of the total construction cost, said Kivisaari of Verona.

Giant bomb shelters: Finland attracts countries seeking safety - Reuters
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, his Polish counterpart Karol Nawrocki and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen have visited Merihaka in recent years.

"We came to gain the experience that is available here, and we have a big dream of building a sports complex like this," said Tetiana Grunska, deputy head of the Military Administration of the city of Balakliia, Ukraine, during the visit of the Club of Mayors of Ukraine, an organization that brings together more than 600 current and former mayors and heads of territorial communities.

Poland wants to follow suit
Poland also plans to redesign its shelters.

Giant bomb shelters: Finland attracts countries seeking safety - Reuters
This year and last, Poland allocated 5.8 billion zlotys (R$7.97 billion) for the reconstruction of its collective defense facilities, the Interior Ministry said.

"We are building from scratch. The situation in this regard was really critical in Poland - the last shelter was built in the mid-1990s, so for 30 years nothing was done," said Robert Klonowski, deputy director of the Polish Ministry of the Interior.

Ukraine and Poland have already introduced new laws to make it mandatory to build shelters in certain new buildings, but Yuliya Chufistova, a board member of the Mayors' Club, said the move had led private investors to cancel projects in Ukraine.

"The price is higher when the rules are stricter, so we need to find a balance," she said.

Warnings from Ukraine
Close to the Ukrainian front line, in Grunska's hometown of Balakliia, the daily sirens in a five-year war show the value that dual-use facilities like these would have.

One of the city's few bomb shelters was built last year to double as a school, allowing children to return to class several floors below ground, safe from Russian drone and missile attacks.

Boxing coach Volodymyr Borshch said air raid warnings sound 15 times a day or more.

"I would like there to also be an underground shelter for sports activities, where it would be possible not only to wait out the air raid alert, but also to do full training while we wait," he told Reuters.

Demographic catastrophe: Ukraine is becoming a nation of widows and orphans

Source: CNN