Russia lets banks arm staff to shoot down Ukrainian drones

Russia's parliament has approved a landmark law that will allow the country's central bank, Sberbank, and other major financial institutions to deploy their own anti-drone defense systems and arm employees to shoot down incoming Ukrainian drones without waiting for security services, according to legislation passed by the State Duma on Tuesday. The institutions will bear the costs of installing electronic jamming equipment and training staff to jam or intercept drone control signals, as well as damage or destroy unmanned aerial vehicles threatening their facilities. The bill, which was first presented last August and expanded in scope, must still be approved by the upper house Federation Council and signed by President Vladimir Putin before becoming law. The measure comes amid a sharp escalation in Ukrainian drone strikes against Russian territory. On Sunday, Ukraine launched a drone attack on Moscow that killed at least three people and wounded 15, while the previous week another attack on a student residence in the Lugansk region killed 21 people. Kyiv has significantly expanded its drone capabilities in recent months, with long-range Ukrainian aircraft now reaching targets hundreds of kilometers inside Russia, including an unprecedented attack on an air base in Siberia in June 2025. Russia has resisted adopting more extreme measures to shield the population from the war, but the situation appears to have forced a change in approach. The expansion of drone warfare has also exposed vulnerabilities in Europe's defenses. Russia has been using electronic warfare systems to divert incoming drones toward Baltic countries, prompting European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to admit on Tuesday that there are "vulnerabilities" in the Baltic region. Earlier this year, Ukrainian forces struck several ports in the Baltic Sea, including Primorsk and Ust-Luga, which serve as critical export hubs for Russian oil and petroleum products. The law represents Moscow's latest effort to counter repeated attacks on energy infrastructure that Kyiv has targeted to deprive Russia of export revenue used to finance the war.