Finland ran Europe’s largest civil defense drill since World War II inside a shelter carved under a sports arena

Finland shut more than 2,000 people into a rock-hewn shelter that is normally a sports hall in Kuopio on 2 September, with some remaining overnight to practice operating the facility, the Associated Press reported. The two-day exercise, Shelter 2026, was the largest civil defense drill in Europe since World War II, by AP's account. Its scenario had cyberattacks cutting power and water while the threat of Russian missile strikes grew.

What two hours underground exposed

Three colleges got the alarm at 11:30 on 2 September, and students had about half an hour to reach the shelter, called Luola, or the Cave, Yle reported that evening. Staff barred the doors behind them. Partitions divided the sports hall into rooms of about 200 people. There were not enough beds, so people rested in shifts, and 60 dry toilets served everyone. The internet worked poorly, and the air grew heavy after an hour. The site holds up to 7,000 people under emergency law.

Antti Haataja, preparedness chief at the North Savo Rescue Department, said the move underground went calmly and faster than he expected. A real emergency would put those inside to work, he added, including emptying the toilets. More than a hundred people stayed through the night into 3 September, Yle said, while AP described hundreds sleeping on trestle beds.

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Finland is reading Ukraine's experience

Retired Finnish Army Colonel Asko Muhonen, who organized the drill, said Finland has to learn from Ukraine, where people sometimes have only minutes to reach a metro station. What matters is cover they can actually get to, not a shelter that survives a nuclear blast. Ukraine's parliament is advancing a Finnish-style bill that would put one within 10 minutes of everyone.

Dmytro Untila, 20, a Ukrainian student in Kuopio, was at home in Odesa when Russian missiles hit the city on 24 February 2022, and waited the strike out in his building's entrance hall, having nowhere better to go. Training like this would have helped in Ukraine, he said, "because nobody knew this could happen."

The pressure Finland and its neighbors are drilling against

Finland shares more than 1,300 km of border with Russia and joined NATO with Sweden after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Shelters answer only part of the pressure. Russia is running a campaign of sabotage across Europe, Western officials say, a Russian aircraft is suspected of having entered Finnish airspace on 20 August, and US intelligence has warned that Poland and the Baltic states may face wider Russian hybrid attacks for backing Kyiv.