Interior minister Daniella Misail-Nichitin said on Moldova 1’s “Pe Față”, carried by MOLDPRES on 20 October 2026, that the Republic of Moldova has 1,790 shelters, with total capacity of more than 350,000 people. Radio Moldova repeated the figures on 21 October. This is an announced inventory, not a new construction programme already voted through.

The General Inspectorate for Emergency Situations evaluated the spaces. More than 250 of them are meant for civil protection and anti-radiation protection. A headline that says “almost 1,800” rounds the IGSU figure of 1,790.

Misail-Nichitin acknowledged that not all meet minimum standards and that repairs and extra investment are needed. “In some of them citizens can take shelter, in others they cannot. Because there was no investment for a very long time, they have deteriorated.” Deterioration is a technical state, not a war crisis proclaimed yesterday.

The shelters are run by central authorities, local authorities and private firms. MOLDPRES notes that IGSU follows civil-protection policy, while the National Inspectorate for Technical Security checks quality and can record breaches. The minister did not give a tally of fines or of spaces already repaired.

For the spaces that work, she said there are minimum conditions and first-aid kits. Water, she added, should be at hand, “elementary — a bottle of water”. MOLDPRES writes that Chișinău is better off in number and capacity, and that smaller towns and villages need more public information. Cellars can be used in disasters, depending on conditions.

On the same programme the minister spoke of proposed legal changes so that new buildings would include minimum shelter standards. A proposal is not a law in force and does not mean new bunkers have been built.

An MD-ALERT system on phones, she said, could be working in 2027 if procurement starts at the end of 2026 or the start of 2027. Until then a module in the EVO app is being prepared. Those are conditional dates, not a system switched on today.

The closed fact remains the inventory: 1,790 shelters, more than 350,000 places, some of them degraded, with no construction programme adopted on Wednesday.

Image: Alexandru Panoiu, the Ministry of Internal Affairs palace, Chisinau, 26 July 2012, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons; archive, not the 20 October 2026 broadcast.

Sources consulted: Aproape 1.800 de adaposturi in R. Moldova. Ministra de Interne: In unele cetatenii se pot adaposti, in altele - nu, deoarece sunt degradate - Radio Moldova; Republica Moldova are 1.790 de adaposturi, cu o capacitate de peste 350 de mii de persoane. Nu toate corespund standardelor - MOLDPRES.