Meloni plans to ban burqas and niqabs in Italian schools, and cap foreign students in classrooms

ROME (AP) — Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said Sunday she’ll soon introduce a measure to her government that would cap the number of foreign students in classrooms and ban the wearing of burqas and niqabs in schools.

Meloni told the youth wing of her nationalist conservative Brothers of Italy party that the measure would also make Italian language lessons compulsory for parents of foreign students having “serious difficulties integrating into the school system.”

“For us, anyone who comes to Italy and wants to build their future here must learn our language, understand our culture, and respect our rules,” she said to a standing ovation at the Gioventù Nazionale national festival in Rome. “It is the only serious way to welcome them.”

Meloni specifically referred to a ban on the burqa, an all-covering dress worn by some Muslim women, and the niqab, the veil worn by the most conservative Muslim women, in which, at most, only the eyes show. But Meloni didn't mention the hijab, the headscarf worn by some Muslim women.

Once approved by the government, the measure would need parliamentary approval within 60 days to pass into law.

Meloni, who has political roots in the far-right, has consistently been hawkish on migration. But she has evolved politically over her tenure as prime minister, shifting from a nationalist outlier to an establishment figure among European Union politicians.

However, she's also keen to boost her popularity before a general election next year and is introducing a string of policies that achieve that aim, including an exemption from a hated property tax on small- and medium-sized cars and scooters.

Earlier this month, Meloni’s conservative administration became Italy’s longest-serving uninterrupted government since World War II.

Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni attends at Fenix, the FdI youth festival, in Rome, Sunday, Sept. 20, 2026. (Valentina Stefanelli/LaPresse via AP)

Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni attends at Fenix, the FdI youth festival, in Rome, Sunday, Sept. 20, 2026. (Valentina Stefanelli/LaPresse via AP)

Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni attends at Fenix, the FdI youth festival, in Rome, Sunday, Sept. 20, 2026. (Valentina Stefanelli/LaPresse via AP)

Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni attends at Fenix, the FdI youth festival, in Rome, Sunday, Sept. 20, 2026. (Valentina Stefanelli/LaPresse via AP)

Ukrainian forces fired more than 1,000 drones at Russia overnight, including hundreds that were launched toward Moscow, officials said Sunday, as the Kremlin was wrapping up the third and last day of its parliamentary elections.

Moscow’s mayor described the wave of drones as the “largest ever” drone attack on the Russian capital and said there had been damage to the Moscow Oil Refinery, which is among several sites that supply the Russian capital, and a residential building.

Across the wider Moscow region, the attack killed two people and wounded 20, local Gov. Andrei Vorobyov said. The dead were a 74-year-old man and a 44-year-old woman, he said.

Writing on social media, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Kyiv had used a range of missiles and drones in the attack — including Ukraine's domestically made Flamingo and Pelican missiles — to hit oil and logistics facilities.

"These are billions of dollars that sustain the war machine," Zelenskyy said, referring to the financial pressure that Kyiv hopes to put on Russia's economy.

Ukraine also continued to fend off Russian attacks, Zelenskyy said. A Russian drone strike hit a monastery in Ukraine's Kherson region Saturday, killing a member of the clergy and wounding four people, he said.

A Russian attack on the Ukrainian capital also killed two children and their mother on Saturday evening, said Tymur Tkachenko, head of the Kyiv regional state administration. He later said that another child wounded in the same attack had died in hospital on Sunday.

The attack took place on the final day of Russia's first wartime parliamentary election — balloting that has been virtually devoid of opposition to President Vladimir Putin’s policies and is all but certain to cement the Kremlin’s dominance.

Russia was also holding the vote in the four Ukrainian regions that Moscow illegally annexed after the war began but still doesn’t fully control, and in Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula that was illegally annexed by Russia in 2014. Kyiv has denounced the action as illegal.

In a Russian-occupied area of Ukraine's Kherson region, a Ukrainian attack killed a member of the local electoral committee, Russia's Central Election Commission said in a statement.

Russia’s Ministry of Defense said Sunday that its forces shot down a total of 1,110 Ukrainian drones across Russia, as well as over the annexed Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea and the waters of the Black Sea.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said that 450 drones had been destroyed en route to the Russian capital, and that the attack had damaged the Moscow Oil Refinery and a residential building.

He said the “unprecedented attack” on Moscow was an attempt to disrupt the elections. "The enemy failed in this regard," he said.

Since Russia’s invasion more than four years ago, Ukraine has become a global leader in military drone technology, deploying domestically produced long-range drones alongside missiles for strikes deep inside Russia. Its drone technology has impressed governments and defense manufacturers around the world.

Kyiv is aiming to make the Russian public feel the war’s consequences and pressure Russian President Vladimir Putin into negotiating a peace settlement. Putin has so far shown no signs he intends to stop the invasion.

Instead, Moscow and Kyiv have been drawn into an escalating duel of long-range aerial strikes as fighting along the roughly 1,250-kilometer (780-mile) front line in eastern and southern Ukraine has slowed, restricted by large numbers of drones and ground robots threatening troop movements.

Follow the AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

An earlier version of this story was corrected to show that the Russian defense ministry said the total number of destroyed drones was 1,110, not 1,100.

Flame and smoke is seen rising from Moscow's oil refinery in the south east of the city following a largescale Ukrainian drone attack, Sunday, Sept. 20, 2026. (UGC via AP)

A voter casts a ballot in the parliamentary election in Moscow, Sunday, Sept. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Pavel Bednyakov)

The damaged rooftop of a residential building after a Russian drone strike in Boiarka, Ukraine, Sunday, Sept. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

A Ukrainian air defense soldier gets ready to repel Russia's drone attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, late Saturday, Sept. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

Flame and smoke is seen rising from Moscow's oil refinery in the south east of the city following a largescale Ukrainian drone attack, Sunday, Sept. 20, 2026. (UGC via AP)

In this photo provided by Ukraine's 65th Mechanized Brigade press service, Ukrainian soldiers prepare an FPV drone to fire towards Russian positions in Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine, Saturday, Sept. 19, 2026. (Andriy Andriyenko/Ukraine's 65th Mechanized Brigade via AP)

In this photo provided by Ukraine's 65th Mechanized Brigade press service, a Ukrainian soldier prepares an FPV drone to fire towards Russian positions in Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine, Saturday, Sept. 19, 2026. (Andriy Andriyenko/Ukraine's 65th Mechanized Brigade via AP)

In this photo provided by Ukraine's 65th Mechanized Brigade press service, a Ukrainian soldier prepares an FPV drone to fire towards Russian positions in Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine, Saturday, Sept. 19, 2026. (Andriy Andriyenko/Ukraine's 65th Mechanized Brigade via AP)

In this photo provided by Ukraine's 65th Mechanized Brigade press service, a Ukrainian soldier prepares an FPV drone to fire towards Russian positions in Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine, Saturday, Sept. 19, 2026. (Andriy Andriyenko/Ukraine's 65th Mechanized Brigade via AP)