A manufacturing plant in Russia’s Tatarstan region has significantly scaled up its production of Iranian-designed drones, using a range of Chinese components, and recruiting a low-skilled workforce of Russian teenagers and African women,

The battlefield in Ukraine has taken to the skies, as Russia floods the frontlines with waves of drones. Behind this relentless assault is a secretive factory in the Alabuga Special Economic Zone, producing thousands of drones using Iranian designs,

Russia’s drone strikes on Ukraine have increased sixfold in four months. The offensive is being fueled by a facility in Russia’s southern Tatarstan region, which is ramping up production with the help of a low-skilled workforce of Russian students.

In 2023, the factory produced 2,738 Shahed drones, and by the first nine months of 2024, it more than doubled this output, manufacturing 5,760 drones. According to anonymous sources, the factory is also assembling thousands of “fake” drones aimed at exhausting Ukraine’s air defense systems.