Russia has approved legislation allowing the central bank and other major financial institutions to deploy their own anti-drone defenses, as Ukrainian aerial attacks continue to strain the country’s air defenses.
The measure, passed Tuesday by the State Duma, authorizes institutions including the central bank, state-owned lender Sberbank, the Russian Cash Collection Association and the Special Postal Service to fund and install drone defense systems at their facilities, as well as train employees to operate them.
The bill still requires approval by the upper house and signature from President Vladimir Putin before it becomes law.
Under the legislation, employees at these institutions would be permitted to engage unmanned aerial threats without waiting for state security forces. The measure says they could respond by jamming or disrupting drone control signals, interfering with their command systems, or damaging or destroying the drones.
Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Financial Markets Anatoly Aksakov, one of the authors of the new legislation, told RBC Radio that employees would be issued weapons.
According to remarks posted on the Kremlin’s official website, Alexander Shokhin, head of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, said that companies require “not only light weapons of 7.62 caliber, but also larger ones, including various electronic warfare systems, laser installations and other calibers.”
“Businesses are ready to finance all this work, but a mechanism is needed where financing schemes are clear. This could be a fund of some sort or another form of targeted financing,” he added.
The proposal comes amid a surge in Ukrainian drone attacks this year targeting Russian industry, including energy facilities and ports.
On Wednesday, local officials in Crimea said a Ukrainian missile hit the Russian Central Bank’s office in Sevastopol, setting the building on fire. Crimean governor Mikhail Razvozhaev said the weapon used was a British-made Storm Shadow missile.
Occupied Sevastopol came under drone and missile attack, with reports of a missile strike setting the Russian Central Bank’s southern branch on fire. Additional reports point to a missile hit on a naval headquarters in the city. #Crimea pic.twitter.com/93mCDjzUuc
— NOELREPORTS 🇪🇺 🇺🇦 (@NOELreports) May 27, 2026
Meanwhile, Russia said on Monday that it intended to carry out “systematic strikes” on defense and military-industrial targets in Kyiv, in response to a Ukrainian drone attack last week on a student dormitory in Starobilsk in the occupied Luhansk region, which Russian officials said killed 21 people.
Pots, paintings, pencils, all littered among the rubble
Students lived and studied in this Starobelsk dorm
Kiev killers unashamedly claim this was an ‘elite drone command unit’https://t.co/JSlyxniwmb pic.twitter.com/HZQPy3Hm0A
— RT (@RT_com) May 23, 2026
