Ukraine-Russia war latest: Russians ‘withdraw billions’ from banks amid fears Putin could seize money

People in Russia are withdrawing billions from the nation’s banks over fears that the Kremlin could begin to seize money to finance the war with Ukraine, a report says.

According to The Washington Post , the country is seeing a record cash outflow amid intensifying drone strikes from Ukraine .

Nearly 286.4bn rubles (worth $3.4bn) was withdrawn in the first two weeks of August, according to data from the Russian Central Bank, reported in The Post .

That follows $7.3bn withdrawn last month and more than $4.5bn in June.

Alexandra Prokopenko, a former adviser to the Russian Central Bank, said the withdrawals illustrated a level of fear among the Russian public.

“It means people have no trust in the Russian banking system or in the Russian financial system,” Prokopenko said.

“This is all a consequence of the fear that the government will do something with the banking system, that it could nationalise deposits.”

Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said Russia had the right to regard the direct involvement of Britain in strikes on Russian territory as participation in the war in Ukraine.

His comments came after the Times ⁠newspaper reported on Saturday that ​British-made ⁠drones had been ‌used for long-range strikes against Russia for the first ‌time.

Following the report, Russia's ‌embassy in London warned Britain of unspecified "consequences" for supplying ⁠drones to Kyiv.

PM Andy Burnham said on Tuesday that Britain would support Ukraine "100%" in its fight against Russia and stand by Kyiv "in ‌its hour of ​need".

Moscow has previously ‌accused British specialists ⁠of involvement in attacks ⁠on Russian territory, saying Britain's role ‌would ​be taken "into account" ‌in its response.

A thermal power plant in central Ukraine halted operations yesterday after it suffered significant damage from a Russian strike, power firm DTEK said.

Estonia is investigating whether Russia was involved in an arson attack last week on a building housing a defence contractor, the Baltic country's prime minister said in a statement.