Ukrainian parliament registers a bill on bomb shelter network

The Verkhovna Rada has registered a draft law on bomb shelter network construction to protect the population

The Ukrainian parliament's newspaper, Voice of Ukraine, reported this.

Draft Law № 7398 is entitled "On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of Ukraine on Ensuring Civil Protection Requirements during Planning and Development of Territories"; one of its initiators is the head of the Servant of the People party, Olena Shuliak.

A working group set up by the Parliament's Committee on the Organization of State Power, Local Self-Government, Regional Development, and Urban Planning at the Ministry of Community and Territorial Development drafted the law. 

The explanatory note to the draft states that the possibilities of the existing civil protection system in Ukraine are minimal. Therefore, Ukraine urgently needs to deploy a modern network of civil defense protective structures, which can significantly increase the citizens' protection level.

"The war has shown that there are few reliable shelters in Ukraine. Many are not equipped with evacuation exits, without access to water supply and sewerage systems, not adapted for food storage, not to mention the ability to protect the population in the event of weapons of mass destruction," Shuliak said.

"Draft № 7398 provides the urgent deployment of a bomb shelter network in Ukraine, including new buildings. One of its requirements is the readiness to accept the population to shelter within 12 hours," she said.

Shuliak added that the town-planning documentation should include information about the planned engineering and technical measures of civil protection because otherwise, it will not be approved.

The draft also proposes:

• to simplify the procedure for transferring the land for civil defense protective structure placement;
• to establish that the project construction documentation provided permanent placement for more than 50 individuals and occasional placement for more than 100 individuals; must include a section on civil engineering measures with the design decisions ensuring compliance with accessibility for persons with disabilities and other less mobile groups;
• to provide additional grounds to refuse the state architectural and construction control to issue a completed facility certificate in case of non-compliance with civil protection engineering and technical requirements;
• to determine the criteria for civil protection structures' maintenance in readiness for use as intended.