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Moscow Fines Arms Plants After Voluntary Anti-Drone Recruitment Falls Short
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Russia has begun fining strategic defense plants that failed to recruit enough workers for volunteer air-defense units to guard their facilities from drone attacks.
This was reported by Ukraine's Foreign Intelligence Service (SZRV) on its official website on July 17.
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The measure took shape in late 2025, after authorities in Russia's Kirov region concluded that even rear areas were no longer safe from drone attacks, the agency noted.
Local officials ordered enterprises to raise their own air-defense units from among civilian staff, according to the agency, but few workers volunteered to stand guard rather than work the line.
Three manufacturers—the Lepse plant, Selmash, and Mayak—were penalized when recruitment fell short. Lawyers for Lepse conceded in court that "campaigning among employees produced no results," and the fine was lifted only after the reservist quota was met through coercion.
At Selmash, management argued that the operational headquarters lacked authority to impose hiring quotas and that coercing staff to serve as a human shield was unlawful. The court reduced the fine only after the plant produced the required number of recruits.
Mayak, also fined, warned that the penalties created financial risks and could disrupt fulfillment of the state defense order.
The three enterprises already shoulder much of the regional war-production burden, making the fines a direct threat to output.
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At the same time, the intelligence service noted, Russia's federal tax service moved in the opposite direction.
Businesses may now write off spending on anti-drone guns and electronic-warfare equipment against their profit tax.
Higher-value systems may be logged as fixed assets and depreciated over several years, effectively nudging manufacturers to arm themselves at their own expense, the agency stated.
The two measures pull in opposite directions. One arm of the state penalizes plants for failing to supply manpower for factory defense, while another rewards them for arming themselves against the consequences of the invasion Moscow launched, SZRV concluded.
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The scramble to shield factory floors follows a widening Ukrainian drone campaign that has pushed deep into Russia's industrial interior.
On June 27, a long-range strike hit the Titan-Barrikady defense plant in Volgograd, damaging a main production building tied to strategic missile programs.
Across 2026, Ukrainian operators have struck 194 elements of Russia's air-defense network, 31 of them in June alone.
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