New drone incidents have exposed a problem with Lithuania’s civil defense
Kyiv • UNN
There is no unified procedure in Lithuania for opening shelters at night during an air threat. Municipalities are preparing remote access systems.
There is no single procedure in Lithuania that would guarantee the opening of all shelters in the event of an air-raid warning, particularly at night. Some shelters may remain inaccessible to people even after a threat warning, LRT reports, according to UNN.
Details
The issue became relevant after nighttime warnings of a possible air threat in Vilnius and Kaunas. Lithuania’s Minister of the Interior Martynas Katelinas said that after the highest threat level is announced, people should proceed to designated shelters; however, responsibility for opening them lies with municipalities.
The Association of Municipalities of Lithuania says that, in practice, there is no nationwide procedure for opening shelters. Different cities use their own algorithms, and in some cases, access to the premises requires physically finding a person with the keys.
It may be impossible to open a shelter within 10 minutes
After receiving the signal, the shelter manager, let’s be realistic, will not find within 10 minutes someone who will come and unlock it
Problems have arisen before. In Kaunas, shelters are designed to accommodate almost half of the city’s population; however, during a previous emergency, some of the premises remained locked.
Some municipalities are now preparing to install remote shelter-opening systems. According to estimates by Lithuania’s Ministry of the Interior, the shelters currently available across the country, provided they are ready and accessible, can accommodate more than half of the population.