Russian bank staff and branches could be joining the fight against Ukrainian drone attacks under an ambitious plan approved by the country’s Lower House of Parliament.

The banks would bear the cost of installing electronic jamming systems on their premises while selected employees would also shoot down incoming drones, according to the draft bill passed in its third and final reading on Tuesday (May 26, 2026).

The bill, which state news agency Interfax said was first presented last August and later expanded in scope, must still be approved by the upper house Federation Council and signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin before coming into force.

Russia is finding it hard to protect its large land mass from a growing number of attacks by increasingly sophisticated Ukrainian long-range drones. Smaller drones are also holding back Russian troops along the 1,250-kilometre front line and disrupting the supply lines of Russia’s invading army, Western analysts and officials say.

Russian banks are not known to have been a prime target for Ukrainian drones over the past four years of war that followed Moscow’s invasion.

With little detail included in the bill, it raised multiple questions about how such a project would work.

The widespread installation of equipment and the training of staff in how to use it would require a huge organisational effort.

The plan encompasses Russia’s central bank and other top institutions, including majority state-owned Sberbank. Since there are banks in almost every town, their incorporation in air defences could help expand Russia’s cover.

With Mr. Putin keen to shield Russians from the war, the step could work against his efforts by involving regular citizens in the war and making the consequences of the invasion more visible.

Under the law passed in its second and third reading by the Duma, bank employees may jam or intercept drone control signals, and damage or destroy uncrewed aerial, underwater and ground vehicles threatening their facilities, without waiting for a response from security services.

“Jamming will be used to make it more difficult for (the drones) to target and attack the relevant targets,” Anatoly Aksakov, chairman of the State Duma Committee on Financial Markets, told Russian media outlet RBK. “Plus, we’ll also use means to shoot down these drones, thereby protecting the relevant targets.” Each organisation will determine which employees are authorised to deploy the measures.

Russia on Tuesday (May 19, 2026) began massive manoeuvres of its nuclear forces featuring practice launches of nuclear-capable ballistic and cruise missiles in drills that come amid surge in Ukrainian drone strikes.

The three-day exercise will involve 64,000 troops, over 200 missile launchers, more than 140 aircraft, 73 surface warships and 13 submarines, including eight armed with nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles, the Defence Ministry said.

The manoeuvres will focus on the “preparation and use of nuclear forces under the threat of aggression,” the ministry said.

The drills will also practice cooperation with Belarus, a neighbour and ally that hosts Russian nuclear weapons.

Russian arsenals in Belarus include its latest intermediate range nuclear-capable Oreshnik missile system.

The manoeuvres come as Ukraine has sharply intensified its drone attacks against Russia, including a weekend barrage on Moscow’s suburbs that killed three and damaged several buildings and industrial facilities.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly reminded the world about Moscow’s nuclear arsenals after sending troops into Ukraine in February 2022 to try to deter the West from ramping up support for Kyiv.

The recent attacks have made it harder for officials in the Kremlin to cast the conflict in Ukraine — now in its fifth year — as something so distant that it doesn’t affect the daily routines of Russian civilians.

The exercise unfolded as Mr. Putin on Tuesday (May 19, 2026) is starting a two-day visit to China.

Last week, he praised a successful test launch of the new Sarmat ICBM, which is set to replace aging Soviet-built nuclear missiles.

Russian hawks long have urged the Kremlin to respond to the growing Ukrainian attacks by striking Kyiv’s allies in Europe with conventional weapons, arguing that European NATO members wouldn’t dare to retaliate and enter a direct military conflict with the world’s largest nuclear power.

Last month, the Defence Ministry published a list of factories in Europe that it said were involved in producing drones and their components for Ukraine.

It warned that attacks on Russia involving drones manufactured in Europe are fraught with “unpredictable consequences.”