In the morning programme "Novi dan" with Tihomir Ladisic, security expert Pavle Kalinic commented on the possibility of the conflict in Ukraine spreading to the rest of the world and the possibility of using nuclear weapons.

The situation has escalated following the deployment of ballistic missiles and long-range missiles, with the constant mention of nuclear war causing particular panic. Governments in Sweden, Norway and Finland are distributing leaflets to citizens to prepare them for what might come, and many other European countries – including Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Estonia and even Germany – are preparing for war.

“It happens with every crisis – floods, earthquakes, pandemics. There are always critics who claim that this won’t happen,” said Kalinic.

There is not a single functioning shelter in Zagreb

As the former head of the Zagreb Office for Emergency Management, Kalinic had leaflets sent out to citizens from 2016 to 2019 with instructions on what to do in potential crisis situations.

“The idea was to put up posters in all public institutions and send leaflets to private addresses. Offices like mine were supposed to act within 24 to 48 hours of a crisis, after which the state would take responsibility. But that hasn’t happened. People are quick to criticise but don’t ask what they can do to help. Now they wonder why there are no shelters or bunkers in the buildings, even though the building owners were supposed to finance them and refused because they thought there wouldn’t be another war.

As far as I know, there is not a single functioning shelter in Zagreb, apart from the one in the Office for Emergency Management. If a crisis like a war broke out now, Croatia’s existing infrastructure could only protect about 15 per cent of the population. And if a nuclear disaster were to occur, only a small percentage would survive. In addition, the state should have five years’ worth of food stocks, but when the pandemic broke out, we saw that they only lasted for 28 days.”

Croatia does not have the infrastructure to protect itself against all these threats

Kalinic also questioned whether people would even recognise the difference between air raid sirens and general danger, blaming the state and its “policy of neglecting this issue”.” Aside from the real and life-threatening dangers, he highlighted the psychological threats, noting that modern warfare often relies more effectively on propaganda.

“Unfortunately, Croatia does not have the infrastructure to defend itself against all these threats that Sweden, for example, warns about. We could translate their brochure, but without the necessary infrastructure it would be meaningless. We saw this with the earthquakes that we warned about in the office for years, but nobody cared and claimed that we were spreading panic,” Kalinic concluded.