Ukraine war exhibition opens at Berlin Nazi bunker museum

By AFP 24 February 2026, 8:36 am

Edit

The entrance to the Berlin Story Bunker with a sign reading 'Ukraine Museum' is pictured during a press presentation of the "Ukraine Museum" in the "Berlin Story Bunker" on February 23, 2026 in Berlin, one day before the exhibition's opening to the public and the fourth anniversary of Russia's invasion in Ukraine. (RALF HIRSCHBERGER / AFP)

A permanent exhibition about the Ukraine war opens at a former Nazi bunker in Berlin on the fourth anniversary of Russia’s invasion, to encourage continued support for Kyiv.

Weapons, other objects brought back from the front lines and testimonies from the conflict have been collected by the Berlin Story Bunker, a museum housed in a former World War II air raid shelter in the German capital.

The aim is to raise public awareness about the “physical reality” of the conflict, museum curator Wieland Giebel tells AFP.

The Ukrainian section is being added to the existing permanent exhibitions focusing on Nazism and Germany from 1945 to the present day.

“Visitors to Germany can’t really imagine what war is like — we want to show it to them,” says Giebel, standing in front of the huge entrance to the bunker, built in 1943.

Germany is one of Ukraine’s key backers; it is the biggest supplier of weapons to Kyiv in Europe and a major diplomatic ally.

It also hosts around 1.3 million Ukrainian refugees.