Vanessa Gera, Vadim Ghirda and the central Europe team made AP the first major news organization to take a serious look at readiness in the countries most likely to be affected, as fighting around Ukraine’s nuclear power plants and Russia’s threats to use nuclear weapons reawaken nuclear fears in Europe.
Some of Ukraine’s neighboring countries have started distributing potassium iodide pills, and officials are preparing old Soviet-era nuclear shelters for possible use.
After two weeks spent persuading authorities to give AP’s journalists access to the underground shelters, Warsaw, Poland, correspondent Gera and colleagues reported comprehensively and responsibly for all formats on European readiness for a possible nuclear attack. The team was careful to avoid sensationalizing the coverage or raising unnecessary fears on an already anxious continent.
Contributors included Eldar Emric and Armin Durgut in Konjic, Bosnia; Karel Janicek in Prague; Bela Szandelszky and Anna Szilagyi in Budapest, Hungary; Michal Dyjuk in Warsaw, Poland; Jan M. Olsen in Copenhagen, Denmark; Jari Tanner in Helsinki, Finland; and Nicolae Dumitrache in Bucharest, Romania.
Jacek, 37, a local resident, closes a door to a shelter in the basement of a residential building in Warsaw, Poland, Oct. 19, 2022. Poland has ordered an inventory of the country’s shelters as fighting around Ukraine’s nuclear power plants and Russia’s threats to use nuclear weapons have reawakened nuclear fears in Europe.
AP Photo / Michal Dyjuk
A Cold War-era shelter under the steel production plant ArcelorMittal in Warsaw, Poland, Oct. 20, 2022.
AP Photo / Michal Dyjuk
A tourist boat is rowed on an underground lake inside the Salina Turda, a former salt mine turned tourist attraction, now listed by Romanian emergency authorities as a potential civil defense shelter in Turda, central Romania, Oct. 17, 2022.
AP Photo / Vadim Ghirda
People walk inside the Salina Turda, a former salt mine turned tourist attraction, now listed by Romanian emergency authorities as a potential civil defense shelter in Turda, central Romania, Oct. 17, 2022.
AP Photo / Vadim Ghirda
People walk in an access gallery at the Salina Turda, a former salt mine turned tourist attraction, now listed by Romnian emergency authorities as a potential civil defense shelter in Turda, central Romania, Oct. 17, 2022.
AP Photo / Vadim Ghirda
Tourists ride in boats on an underground lake inside the Salina Turda, a former salt mine turned tourist attraction, now listed by Romanian emergency authorities as a potential civil defense shelter in Turda, central Romania, Oct. 17, 2022.
AP Photo / Vadim Ghirda
A visitor, right, views wax figures in a hospital setting at the Rock Nuclear Bunker Museum in Budapest, Hungary, Oct. 14, 2022.
AP Photo / Anna Szilagyi
Visitors view wax figures of doctors and wounded soldiers in an operating room setting in the Rock Nuclear Bunker Museum in Budapest, Hungary, Oct. 14, 2022.
AP Photo / Anna Szilagyi
The telefax office inside the underground atomic war command center of former Yugoslavia President Josip Broz Tito in Konjic, Bosnia, Oct. 17, 2022. The installation, code named “Istanbul” or simply referred to as “Tito’s bunker,” was built over the course of 26 years at a cost of billions of U.S. dollars. It was built to withstand a nuclear war.
AP Photo / Armin Durgut
The main command room inside the underground atomic war command center of former Yugoslavia President Josip Broz Tito in Konjic, Bosnia, Oct. 17, 2022.
AP Photo / Armin Durgut
Photos from Poland, Romania, Hungary and Bosnia, with exclusive access to some of the shelters, were edited by Romania-based photographer Ghirda, while video footage was edited into three different pieces over the span of a week.
The engaging, visually rich AP story was cited in Politico and widely used by global media outlets.