[On a Kyiv rooftop, a small group of volunteers, including a Supreme Court justice, gather to defend their city against Russia’s drone attacks. The volunteers, armed with Soviet-era machine guns, have seen the attacks escalate in recent months, with over 2,400 drones striking Ukraine in November alone.
CNN has discovered a secretive factory in Russia’s Tatarstan region, Alabuga Special Economic Zone, which has significantly scaled up its production of Iranian-designed attack and surveillance drones. The factory uses Chinese components and recruits a young, low-skilled workforce of Russian teenagers and African women. Ukrainian defense intelligence sources say the factory is now producing thousands of “decoy” drones, designed to exhaust Ukrainian defenses.
The findings offer a rare window into Russia’s booming defense industry, which is outproducing the European Union in terms of weapons and ammunition by a factor of four. Ukraine is in a precarious position, as future American military assistance is in doubt.
Alabuga appears to have already fulfilled a contract to produce 6,000 Shahed-136 drones, and has increased production to more than 2,000 drones per month. The factory also produces low-tech “decoy” drones, known as Gerbera, which are made of plywood and foam and mimic the Shahed’s distinctive triangular shape.
Ukraine’s sanctions commissioner, Vladyslav Vlasiuk, said that the situation is “unfortunate” and that Ukraine is going further by targeting an “ecosystem” of several dozen companies involved in various aspects of drone production. The United States, United Kingdom, and EU have imposed sanctions on Alabuga, but Vlasiuk wants Ukraine’s allies to do more.
The factory has also been recruiting Russian teenagers and African women through an online program called “Alabuga Start,” which offers high salaries, technological skills, and futuristic facilities. However, there is evidence that life at Alabuga is not as utopian as the posts suggest, with reports of long hours, tough punishments, and the recruitment of underage people.
A spokesperson from the US State Department called the situation “desperate and cruel,” and said that the Kremlin has no qualms about pursuing its own aims with no regard to the impact on the people of other sovereign countries or international human rights law.
The Ukrainian defense intelligence officer, Orest, said that all drone assembly workers exist in a climate of secrecy, and that students involved in the production of UAVs live at a separate limited access compound and sign NDAs.
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