Russia Allows Banks to Shoot Down Drones as Defences Strain

Russia has passed legislation permitting its central bank, largest lender Sberbank, and cash-collection agencies to operate their own anti-drone defences and arm employees, a stark departure from standard state-monopolised security. The move, confirmed by State Duma documents and officials in Moscow, follows a Ukrainian missile strike on the central bank’s office in Sevastopol, Crimea, which ignited a fire, local authorities said. Financial institutions are expected to fund the measures themselves, as conveyed by leading business lobbyist Alexander Shokhin to President Vladimir Putin, underscoring the Kremlin’s struggle to protect rear-area infrastructure from increasingly daring drone incursions.

The new law is the latest in a series of ad-hoc provisions aimed at countering Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles, which have struck energy facilities, refineries, and export ports deep inside Russian territory over the past year. Viewed from Riga, the threat is acute: Latvia announced it is deploying interceptor teams along its borders with Russia and Belarus, after several Ukrainian drones—allegedly diverted by Russian electronic jamming—strayed into NATO airspace. Meanwhile, Brussels has prolonged its sanctions framework targeting Russian human-rights violators until May 2027, freezing assets and imposing travel bans on 72 individuals and one entity, in a signal that the EU’s punitive regime remains robust despite war fatigue.

Analysts in Washington note that the United States is preparing to scale back its military contributions to Europe under the NATO Force Model, compounding concerns among allies about the continent’s long-term defence posture. A Czech-led initiative to supply ammunition to Kyiv has seen a sharp drop in financial contributions, reflecting the wider challenge of sustaining Western material support. These pressures coincide with Moscow’s de facto militarisation of the civilian banking sector, an improvisation that, according to security experts, reveals both the effectiveness of Ukraine’s deep-strike campaign and the Russian armed forces’ inability to provide comprehensive air cover.

The Kremlin’s decision to deputise bank personnel as drone hunters is a pragmatic acknowledgment of overstretched air-defence assets, but it may also normalise a creeping privatisation of security that blurs the line between civilian and military spheres. As Ukraine refines its ability to hit symbolic and economic targets far beyond the front lines, and as Western resolve wavers, the conflict’s home-front dynamics are evolving. The image of armed tellers scanning the skies for incoming threats is likely to become less a bizarre outlier and more a symptom of a protracted war where every institution is pressed into service.