Russian Regions Turn to Residents and Businesses to Fund Bomb Shelters

Sep. 30, 2026 Moskva News Agency Authorities in several Russian regions are turning to residents and businesses to pay for bomb shelters and protection against drone attacks, local media reported, as the country restores its civil defense infrastructure amid the war in Ukraine. Building owners in St. Petersburg have received orders to equip shelters, while apartment residents in Yekaterinburg have been asked to approve charges for converting underground parking facilities. In Omsk, parents of kindergarten children have been asked to contribute toward supplies for a basement shelter. The measures would shift some preparation costs to households and businesses as Russia works to restore more than 20,000 protective facilities across 82 regions, a program the Emergency Situations Ministry estimates will require about 155 billion rubles ($1.88 billion). In St. Petersburg, owners of buildings containing civil defense facilities have received notices requiring them to prepare the shelters, BFM news website reported. The St. Petersburg Pharmaceutical Factory was ordered to put an underground facility near the Nevskaya Ratusha complex in order. Similar instructions have been sent to municipal authorities. The requirements apply both to apartment buildings with existing shelter facilities and to those without them, Nikolai Pitirimov, co-chairman of the board of the St. Petersburg Clean Technologies Cluster for the Urban Environment, told BFM. Buildings must provide at least temporary shelter, with the responsibility falling on homeowners’ associations, he said. In Yekaterinburg, residents of one district received notices asking them to vote on equipping shelters in underground parking facilities, local news outlet E1 reported. The Akademichesky property management company said a one-time charge of 841 rubles ($10.18) per person registered as living in an apartment would appear as a separate item on utility bills. The company said the amount was set by a governor’s decree. In Omsk, about 2,500 kilometers from the Ukrainian border, parents at one kindergarten were asked to contribute 200 rubles ($2.42) per child for benches and emergency water supplies in a basement being converted into a shelter, the local outlet Gorod55 reported, citing residents. City authorities said parents had only been advised to help provide supplies and prepare the basement as their means allowed. Emergency Situations Minister Alexander Kurenkov said in February that his ministry was restoring more than 20,000 civil defense facilities nationwide. Russian authorities began a large-scale reconstruction and modernization program for Soviet-era shelters in late May 2025. At the time, Kurenkov said restoring the civil defense system had become increasingly urgent because of the war in Ukraine. This article was translated with the help of artificial intelligence and was reviewed by a Moscow Times editor before publication. Learn more about our newsroom's AI policy here. Read this article in Russian at The Moscow Times' Russian service. Read more about: Regions , Drones , Ukraine war , Business Sign up for our free weekly newsletter Our weekly newsletter contains a hand-picked selection of news, features, analysis and more from The Moscow Times. You will receive it in your mailbox every Friday. Never miss the latest news from Russia. Preview Subscribers agree to the Privacy Policy We sent a confirmation to your email. Please confirm your subscription. A Message from The Moscow Times: Dear readers, We are facing unprecedented challenges. 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