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About 200 women ages 18-22 from across Africa have been recruited to work in a factory alongside Russian vocational students assembling thousands of Iranian-designed attack drones to be launched into Ukraine.
In interviews with The Associated Press, some of the women said they were misled that it would be a work-study program, describing long hours under constant surveillance, broken promises about wages and areas of study, and working with caustic chemicals that left their skin pockmarked and itching.
The AP analyzed satellite images of the complex in Russia's republic of Tatarstan and its leaked internal documents, spoke to a half-dozen African women who ended up there, and tracked down hundreds of videos in the online recruiting program to piece together life at the plant in what is called the Alabuga Special Economic Zone, about 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) east of Moscow.
What to know from AP’s reporting:
Russia and Iran signed a $1.7 billion deal in 2022 after President Vladimir Putin launched his invasion of neighboring Ukraine, and Moscow began launching Iranian imports of drones later that year.
Satellite images show the plant at Alabuga quickly expanded.
It is now Russia’s main plant for making the one-way, exploding drones, with plans to produce 6,000 a year by 2025, according to the internal documents and the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security.
Facing a wartime labor shortage in Russia, Alabuga has recruited from African countries like Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya, South Sudan, Sierra Leone and Nigeria, as well as the South Asian country of Sri Lanka. The drive is expanding to elsewhere in Asia as well as Latin America.
About 90% of the foreign women recruited via a campaign dubbed “Alabuga Start” manufacture drones, according to David Albright, a former U.N. weapons inspector now with the Institute for Science and International Security. The documents show the women largely assemble the drones, use chemicals and paint them. The AP has been told some women have left the plant but are discouraged from doing so by management.
The foreign workers travel by bus from their living quarters to the factory, passing multiple security checkpoints, according to one worker who assembled drones.
They share dormitories and kitchens that are “guarded around the clock,” Alabuga’s social media posts say.
Foreigners receive local SIM cards upon arrival but cannot bring phones into the factory. Four women indicated they couldn't speak freely to outsiders and one suggested her messages were monitored.
The woman who assembled drones said recruits put them together and coat them with a caustic substance with the consistency of yogurt. Many workers lack protective gear, she said, adding that the chemicals made her face feel like it was being pricked with tiny needles, and “small holes” appeared on her cheeks, making them itch.
Although one woman said she loved working at Alabuga because she was well-paid and enjoyed experiencing a different culture and people, most interviewed by AP disagreed about the compensation and suggested that life there did not meet their expectations.
The program initially promised $700 a month, but later social media posts put it at “over $500.”
One African woman said she couldn't send money home because of banking sanctions on Russia, but another said she sent up to $150 a month.
Four women described long shifts of up to 12 hours, with haphazard days off, but some suggested they could tolerate it if they could send money home.
Human rights organizations said they were unaware of what was happening at the factory, although they said it sounded consistent with other actions by Russia in recruiting foreigners.
Russia’s actions “could potentially fulfill the criteria of trafficking if the recruitment is fraudulent and the purpose is exploitation,” said Ravina Shamdasani, a spokesperson for the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, noting that Moscow is a party to theU.N. Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime.
The AP contacted governments of 22 countries whose citizens Alabuga said it had recruited for the program. Most didn’t answer or said they would look into it.
Betty Amongi, Uganda’s minister for Gender, Labour and Social Development, told AP that her ministry raised concerns with its embassy in Moscow about the recruitment, particularly on the age of the women, because “female migrant workers are the most vulnerable category.”
The ministry said it wanted to ensure the women “do not end up in exploitative employment,” and needed to know who was responsible for their welfare while in Russia. Alabuga’s Facebook page said 46 Ugandan women were at the complex, although Amongi had said there were none.
Bolstered by the Alabuga recruits, Russia has vastly increased the number of drones it can fire at Ukraine.
Nearly 4,000 were launched at Ukraine from the start of the war in February 2022 through 2023, the Institute for Science and International Security said. In the first seven months of this year, Russia launched nearly twice that.
An AP analysis of about 2,000 Shahed attacks documented by Ukraine’s military since July 29 shows that about 95% of the drones hit no discernible target, instead crashing in Ukraine or flying out of its airspace.
The failure rate could be due to Ukraine’s improved air defenses or poor craftsmanship among the low-skilled workforce. Another factor could be because Russia is using a Shahed variant without explosives to overwhelm air defenses.
The "Alabuga Start" recruiting drive relies on a robust social media campaign of slickly edited videos of smiling African women cleaning floors, directing cranes or visiting Tatarstan’s cultural sites. They don’t mention the plant’s role at the heart of Russian drone production.
The program was promoted by education ministries in Uganda and Ethiopia, as well as in African media that portrays it as a way to earn money and learn skills.
Initially advertised as a work-study program, Alabuga Start's newer posts say it “is NOT an educational programme,” although one of them still shows young women in plaid school uniforms.
Last month, the social media site said it was “excited to announce that our audience has grown significantly!” That could be due to its hiring of influencers to promote it on TikTok, describing it as an easy way to make money.
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Associated Press writers Michael Biesecker in Washington and Jamey Keaten in Geneva contributed to this report.