Switzerland prepared for each scenario: Cold War bunkers return to fashion as the conflict in Ukraine flares

Since the 1960s, every Swiss municipality has had to build nuclear bunkers for its residents, while such bunkers have also been mandatory in all homes and residential buildings.

The bunkers have become an integral part of Swiss identity.

But underground spaces, used mainly as wine storage cellars, have revived interest since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24th.

Just days after the attack, Russian President Vladimir Putin placed the country's strategic nuclear forces on high alert, sparking the global alarm. Heavy combats near Ukraine's nuclear power plants, including Chernobil, have also raised fears that even neutral Switzerland can traditionally be affected by war.

“Ukrainian is very close to”

“People are discovering that Ukraine is very close,” told AFP Marie Claude Noth-Ecoeur, who heads civil and military security services in the southern mountain region of Wallis.

The rich Alpine country has pledged that each resident will have a housing space if needed.

In fact, the country of 8.6 million people numbers nearly nine million spaces in 365,000 private and public accommodations.

Nicola Squilla Squillac, head of the Geneva Civil Defence and Military Affairs division, said the shelters were designed to offer protection “particularly in the case of a bombing and a” nuclear attack.

They would help protect the population “against shock waves and against radioactivity in the air”, he told AFP, writes France 24.