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- Against the confluence: businesses were allowed not to pay fines due to drone attacks
Against the confluence: businesses were allowed not to pay fines due to drone attacks
Companies will be able not to transfer fines and penalties due to drone attacks, missile strikes or the threat of sabotage, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI) told Izvestia. In case of attacks, it will be enough for companies to obtain a certificate from the regional chamber, which will allow them to temporarily avoid responsibility for disrupting supplies or non-fulfillment of contracts. The mechanism will become an important tool for protecting entrepreneurs. In this case, force majeure will need to be confirmed by documents, and the counterparties will retain the right to challenge it in court. How much this procedure costs and whether there are risks of abuse is in the Izvestia article.
How recognizing UAV attacks as force majeure will help businesses
Today, according to surveys, attempted drone attacks are among the top risks for businesses, along with cyber attacks and a shortage of employees. Due to such threats, companies are sometimes forced to suspend work, as a result, deliveries are disrupted on time. This can lead to fines and losses, even if the entrepreneurs are not to blame for the incident. In this regard, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI) stated that threats of UAV attacks and missile strikes, as well as the very fact of terrorist attacks and sabotage, can now be recognized as force majeure for business.
CCI and regional chambers have the right to confirm force majeure circumstances. Such a certificate helps companies temporarily avoid responsibility for the failure of contracts if it was impossible to fulfill their obligations for objective reasons, explained Vadim Chubarov, Vice President of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
There are no statistics showing how often companies fail to fulfill their obligations precisely because of attempted UAV attacks. However, such cases can no longer be considered just a hypothetical threat — businesses in Russia face them in practice, said Oleg Malakhov, member of the General Council of Delovaya Rossiya and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Primkey. The actions of the enemy can disrupt the work of companies both directly, for example, through the destruction of infrastructure, and indirectly — due to communication outages, disruptions in logistics and supply stoppages.
— In any case, it means losses. Restoration, for example, of a distillation column at an oil refinery can take up to three years, which leads to billions of dollars in losses," the expert emphasized.
We are also talking, for example, about cases when an enterprise is forced to stop work due to alarms. Clarifications on this issue have already been sent to the regional chambers, the CCI representative added.
This applies to any production facilities that are under threat. If the company cannot deliver the products on time, the force majeure certificate will avoid paying damages and large fines, Vadim Chubarov explained. Such a document helps a business not to incur unnecessary responsibility and reduces the risk of bankruptcy. At the same time, labor disputes and loans are not affected by force majeure, the CCI clarified.
Force majeure in Russia is considered to be extraordinary and unavoidable events that prevent the fulfillment of a contract. These can be natural disasters, accidents, military actions, terrorist attacks, emergency situations or epidemics with the introduction of official restrictions. Financial problems or price increases are usually not recognized as force majeure.
If the company cannot ship even the already paid goods on time, the partner has no right to demand fines, said Valery Andrianov, associate professor at the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation. However, the document does not cancel the obligations completely — it only gives a delay.
Izvestia sent a request to the Ministry of Energy.
Which businesses are more likely to be attacked
The enemy most often chooses enterprises from the fuel and energy sector and industrial production as targets, Oleg Malakhov noted. They are mainly trying to attack facilities, the disruption of which can lead to economic and logistical losses. An additional factor remains the tightening of sanctions aimed at restricting Russian energy exports.
Drone debris falls have already been recorded, for example, at the Afipsky and Ilsky refineries in the Krasnodar Territory, as well as at the Volgograd refinery. In August, the FSB of Russia announced the prevention of an attempted attack by a Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicle on the Smolensk NPP by electronic warfare forces.
Smolenskaya NPP
As a business source told Izvestia, most of the requests for recognition of force majeure come from oil refineries. According to the Central Bank, in 2025, the total amount of property insurance payments, including refunds due to terrorist attacks, increased by almost 30% to 164 billion rubles.
How not to get into debt due to APU attacks
If the plant has stopped for a week due to the elimination of the consequences of the attack, it has the right to suspend shipments for this period, but after restoration it is obliged to deliver the products to the buyer in full. Moreover, at the prices specified in the contract, even if the goods have risen in price during downtime, explained Valery Andrianov from the Financial University. If the delivery is no longer relevant, for example, the counterparty has found the goods elsewhere, the contract can be terminated without prejudice to the parties.
In this case, force majeure does not occur automatically — its presence must be proved. One media story about the attack is not enough: the company must confirm that it was this incident that prevented it from fulfilling its obligations under a specific contract, the expert noted.
The force majeure mechanism is in demand today and has become one of the key business protection tools, Oleg Malakhov emphasized. Many contracts contain such provisions, allowing the parties to avoid financial losses in unforeseen circumstances. According to him, this helps suppliers maintain their reputation and reduce the risk of conflicts, while customers understand the validity of delays. However, the measure should be applied carefully and transparently so as not to undermine trust between partners, he added.
The procedure is standard: the injured party submits an application to the CCI and explains what consequences of the attack prevent the contract from being fulfilled. We also need confirmation from the competent authorities, for example, certificates from the fire services. The cost of the certificate from February 2026 is 20.5 thousand rubles, even if it is refused, said Ekaterina Kosareva, Managing partner of VMT Consult.
At the same time, the certificate does not guarantee automatic exemption from payments. If the counterparty does not agree, the dispute may go to court. As Mikhail Shandro, a lawyer at the VEGAS LEX public Dispute and business protection group, emphasized, the company will still have to prove a causal relationship between the attack and the breach of obligations.
So, in one of the regions, the supplier referred to the attacks on the refinery as force majeure, but lost: the court pointed out that general references to the events alone were not enough - evidence was needed of the impossibility of execution under this particular contract. The sum of the claims in the case amounted to 3.8 million rubles.
In another dispute, the court recovered a penalty from the contractor, since the arguments about force majeure, based only on the general situation and risks, were not documented.
But the decision has a downside: enterprises that are regularly attacked raise the issue of compensation for damage, said Yuri Stankevich, deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee on Energy. One possible option is to expand insurance programs so that such cases are covered by policies. As the deputy noted, in 2024, the Supreme Court had already clarified such disputes, since insurance companies were reluctant to make payments due to the scale of the damage. Thus, recognizing UAV attacks as force majeure may also affect the market position, he stressed.
Insurance against UAV attacks remains voluntary, and the conditions specified in the contract may vary depending on the company, the All-Russian Union of Insurers reminded Izvestia. They reported that
such insurance is becoming more popular, but it is a separate type, not related to the protection of obligations between the company and its counterparties.
Can companies abuse the right to force majeure
At the same time, there is a risk of abuse of the concept of force majeure, since unscrupulous market participants may try to use the situation to evade obligations, Oleg Malakhov from Delovaya Rossiya believes. However, according to him, such cases were minimal in the border regions: companies sought to preserve their reputation and continue their work. Moreover, a package of supporting documents is required to obtain a certificate, and only after that a decision is made. In the Kursk region, such certificates were issued free of charge to the most affected enterprises.
The burden of proof is on the debtor, said Mikhail Shandro of VEGAS LEX. If they are not collected, then the company bears civil liability, and the courts most often refuse to recognize force majeure precisely because of the lack of evidence. Therefore, you should not expect an "amnesty" for businesses due to drone attacks.
Dmitry Gusev, deputy chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Reliable Partner Association, does not consider it possible to massively write off the costs of drone force majeure. He also emphasizes that even if there is a certificate, the counterparty has the right to go to court and challenge its application. So in the case of certificates, we are not talking about relaxation, but about a more active business protection mechanism.
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