Russia steps up attacks on Ukrainian draft offices
Vitalii Hnidyi
and
Dan Peleschuk
, Reuters
A woman stands among debris next to a recruitment centre building damaged after a drone attack in Kharkiv on 7 July, 2025, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Photo:
SERGEY BOBOK / AFP
Russia struck two military recruitment centres in separate drone attacks overnight, Ukraine's military said, doubling down on a new campaign of strikes Kyiv says is aimed at disrupting military recruitment.
The attacks damaged draft offices in the regional capitals of Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia and came a day after a Russian drone struck a recruitment centre in the central Ukrainian city of Kremenchuk.
Last week
, Russian attacks targeted draft offices in Poltava, another regional capital, as well as President Volodymyr Zelensky's hometown of Kryvyi Rih.
Both strikes overnight took place in densely populated areas, wounding dozens of civilians and damaging homes and apartment buildings. In Kharkiv, rescue workers sifted through debris as stunned residents recovered.
"This is the tactic our enemy has chosen," Mayor Ihor Terekhov told reporters in front of a badly charred building.
In its daily briefing on Monday (local time), Russia's defence ministry confirmed it had struck an unspecified number of draft offices.
The string of attacks has prompted recruitment centres to disperse some personnel and temporarily suspend work at the locations damaged, ground forces spokesperson Vitaliy Sarantsev told Ukrainian public broadcaster Suspilne.
However, he added that recruitment was still on track. Ukraine's resource-strapped military has struggled to fend off a bigger and better-equipped Russian army on the battlefield, where Moscow has made gradual advances across parts of the east in a grinding summer campaign. Enthusiasm for joining up in Ukraine has also been dampened by reports of corruption as well as poor training and command.
Ukraine's National Security and Defence Council warned that Russia was also waging an "information campaign" by spreading a bot on messaging platform Telegram that purports to collect information about the location of draft offices.
"This ... indicates a coordinated attempt by Russia to destabilise the mobilization process and sow panic among the population," the Center for Countering Disinformation said in a statement.
The recent strikes also follow a string of bombings at recruitment centres and arson attacks on military vehicles earlier this year, which Ukraine's domestic security service has said is Russian sabotage.
- Reuters
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RNZ News
9 hours ago
- RNZ News
Watch: Russia lifts lid on secretive drone factory as satellite images reveal rapid expansion
By Clare Sebastian, Vasco Cotovio, Allegra Goodwin, Daria Tarasova-Markina , CNN "You know, everything you tell us will be used against you," the interviewer on Russian TV warns Timur Shagivaleev, the man behind one of the country's biggest drone factories. Rather than shy away from discussing details of the plant, Shagivaleev replies with a defiant quote that he attributed to a Soviet World War II hero: "You don't have the right to be afraid." Standing at the Alabuga factory amid rows of the distinctive black, triangular Iranian-designed attack drones (known as "Geran" in Russian), he has every reason to feel emboldened. Satellite imagery shows that construction has sharply accelerated at the site in southern Russia. Dozens of new buildings, including what experts believe to be new dormitories and production facilities, have been rapidly taking shape since the winter snow melted this year. This is believed to be Russia's main attack drone factory, a key part of the Kremlin's escalating drone offensive on Ukrainian cities. To fuel this effort, there's also now evidence that the site is drafting teenagers, not only into drone assembly at Alabuga but also into construction work. Moscow has now chosen to publicise the factory and its contribution to Russia's war effort. Shagivaleev, Alabuga's director general, appeared on the docuseries "Military Acceptance," which aired on the Russian Defence Ministry TV channel Zvezda on 20 July. This was the first official glimpse inside the production facility. The program suggests that Alabuga, which has been churning out Iranian-designed Shahed drones for almost three years, has now fully shifted from being an Iranian franchise to a fully localised production line. A screengrab from the Zvezda documentary, showing inside the drone factory at Alabuga Photo: Zvezda / AFP The expansion is happening so quickly that experts say the site's end goal may be to mass-produce drones for global export. David Albright, a former UN weapons inspector, is head of the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS), a US-based think tank that has been tracking Alabuga's expansion since 2022. He told CNN that Moscow's decision to lift the lid on the factory shows "the Russian authorities are feeling more confident about their ability to make drones." "I think it represents that Russia's government is committed to increases in production there, (and) long-term contracts… (that say) we'll buy whatever you produce," he said. Alabuga began producing Shahed drones in 2023, and it now also churns out cheaper versions designed to act as decoys (known as "Gerbera"). The site was already expanding as Russian drone attacks on Ukraine started to ramp up last August. Yet recent satellite images reveal even faster growth over the past few months, as drone strikes on Ukraine have hit record numbers. Photo: Zvezda / AFP Between late 2024 and mid-July this year, satellite imagery shows at least eight new warehouse-like structures at Alabuga, close to the buildings previously identified as Shahed manufacturing facilities. Several are still under construction. Even more strikingly, a CNN analysis of the images and ISIS experts have both identified what appears to be a major expansion in housing for workers at the site. A 12 July image shows at least 104 identical rectangular buildings either fully or partially built, with a similar footprint to existing structures known to be worker dormitories. In images from February, there were only 15 such buildings. The work on the new buildings appears to have begun in earnest in March, as the spring arrived and the snow disappeared. Satellite imagery from 12 July 2025, shows several new warehouses, a dramatic increase in worker dorms and three air defense positions to protect the facility against incoming attacks. Photo: Maxar Technologies / CNN There are also signs that construction has accelerated in recent weeks. More than half of the housing unit construction visible on the 12 July image was not there on 9 June. Stroytrest Alabuga, the company in charge of construction at the site, removed a section of its website detailing plans for a major housing complex called "Europa hostels" in mid-July, but an internal presentation document published on 4 July appears to show the "second stage" of construction underway. CNN has geolocated the drone visuals included in the presentation to Alabuga. Albright's team at ISIS, the US think tank, has assessed that the buildings could accommodate up to 40,000 workers when finished, which he said will represent "a pretty substantial increase in drone production." Alabuga's current production numbers remain a closely held secret. "At one time there was a plan to produce several thousand 'Gerans,'" Shagivaleev said in the Zvezda interview, without specifying the time period. "Now we produce nine times more than originally planned." In December, CNN reported that Alabuga had produced more than 5,700 Shahed drones between January and September 2024, over double the number it produced in the whole of 2023. Photo: Zvezda / AFP The facility was aiming for 10,000 Gerbera decoy drones in 2024, according to Ukrainian defence intelligence sources. Alabuga's ever-expanding production targets have long presented a staffing problem. CNN has previously detailed the practice of recruiting teenagers through the Alabuga Polytech college, as well as African women through a foreign outreach scheme, to satisfy a chronic worker shortage in Russia, exacerbated by its war in Ukraine. Shagivaleev was sanctioned by the US Treasury Department in 2024 in part for his association with "the exploitation of underage students to assemble these UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles or drones)." The Zvezda documentary does not gloss over this. The host refers to the "boys and girls" working in the factory, noting, "they invite schoolchildren here right after the ninth grade, and after college, they call them to the plant." Photo: Zvezda / AFP Children in Russia are typically 15 years old when they finish the ninth grade. There's now evidence Alabuga is bringing these and perhaps other students not only into assembly work but also into construction. On 4 July, a summer camp called "Alabuga Build" officially opened its doors at the site according to posts on its VKontakte account (or VK, Russia's version of Facebook). The tents that the students will be staying in, which were nowhere to be found on satellite imagery from June 9, were on full display as of 12 July. CNN counted more than 100 khaki green tents, like the ones seen in the "Alabuga Build" VK posts, next to warehouses associated with drone production. Drone visuals included in an internal Alabuga presentation and geolocated by CNN show construction well underway on one of the rows of dormitories Photo: Supplied / CNN / Alabuga The camp is organised by the "Russian Student Brigades," which claims to be the largest youth organisation in the country and has drafted in about 2,500 students to build a housing complex called "Mediterranean Park" at Alabuga, according to the Ministry of Education in Russia's Tatarstan region, where Alabuga is located. In one of the clips on the camp's VK page, a young man in a khaki jacket gives an ironic tour of his tent, attempting to make a virtue out of the basic conditions. "Here we have a flat screen plasma TV", he said, showing off a basic white cupboard outside a dark green tent with the number "65" on it. "CDs, DVDs, consoles", he continues, picking up pieces of firewood. The Zvezda documentary suggests Alabuga is now a fully self-sufficient production line. "Aluminium bars come in, engines are made from them; microelectronics are made from electric chips; fuselages are made from carbon fibre and fibreglass - that is, complete localisation," Shagivaleev boasts in the clip. "It is precisely such projects that should become the basis of the technological sovereignty of our country so as not to depend on anyone," added the host. Photo: Zvezda / AFP The images in the program showing Shahed engines being manufactured at Alabuga came as a surprise to several experts whom CNN spoke to. "The Shahed 136 is powered by the copy of an original German design that the Iranians copied," said Fabian Hinz, a research fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies based in London. "And that was one big question, whether the Russians can now manufacture their own engines, and at least this documentary seems to imply that they can, which… would mean that they're independent of Iranian components." Albright, the former UN weapons inspector, said it seemed manufacturing - rather than just assembly - at the site was advancing. "Our understanding had been that they may assemble the engine at Alabuga, but they were contracting out for the parts that require a foundry. It (now) looks like they may have some furnaces or a small foundry in Alabuga itself." Albright said Russia could be planning for Alabuga to not only equip the Russian army, but eventually to sell its drones to foreign customers. This suggests the Zvezda documentary is as much an advert aimed at future buyers as a program designed to scare Ukrainians. Drone visuals included in an internal Alabuga presentation and geolocated by CNN show construction well underway on one of the rows of dormitories Photo: Supplied / CNN / Alabuga Other countries are producing their own version of the Shahed, added Hinz, but "Russian ones are up to date when it comes to, for example, electronic counter measures… So I think that would be a huge selling point." Kyiv has also openly suggested Russia may have transferred the technology to produce its version of the Shahed to North Korea, part of a rapidly expanding military partnership with Pyongyang. "The longer this war continues on our territory, the more warfare technologies evolve, and the greater the threat will be to everyone," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned in June. "This must be addressed now - not when thousands of upgraded 'Shahed' drones and ballistic missiles begin to threaten Seoul and Tokyo." CNN has reached out to both Alabuga and the Russian defense ministry to ask about the purpose of the expansion at the site, and whether it is transferring the Shahed technology to North Korea. Neither has responded. In June 2025 alone, Russia fired nearly 5,500 Shahed or similar drones at Ukraine, according to a CNN analysis of Ukrainian air force reports. That's 16 times more than in June 2024, and a more than 30 percent increase on the previous month. On 9 July, a record 728 drones were fired at Ukraine in a single night. Photo: Center for Strategic and International Studies / CNN Moscow's escalating air war and the distinctive whine of Shaheds are now forcing Ukrainians out of their beds and into shelters and metro stations on an almost-nightly basis. "When we stay at home, we always hide behind two walls," Oleksandr Krupnyk, a father of three in Kyiv, told CNN. "We put our middle child in the bathtub, the youngest on a beanbag chair in the bathroom, and we lay on a mattress in the hallway… with our eldest." Krupnyk and his family are committed to staying in the country and doing their part, but he admits Russia's drone attacks are a near-permanent disruption to daily life. "Constant lack of sleep slows you down, makes you irritable, and reduces your endurance," he explained, adding that his children are struggling with their studies and beg not to go to school. Zelensky said on Tuesday that: "Putin is off the deep end with this 'Shahed' obsession and terror." The president added that Ukraine was not just pushing for more air defences from its allies, but it would also continue with its own deep strikes on Russian territory, at least three of which have targeted Alabuga, a site with an ever-growing role in this conflict. - CNN
NZ Herald
2 days ago
- NZ Herald
A deepening embrace since Russia's invasion of Ukraine signals a turnaround in the two countries' ties
Trade between the two countries exceeded US$240 billion ($396b) last year, up by two-thirds since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. China has supplied many of the drones and drone components used by Russia in the conflict. China's staunch support for Russia's economy has helped Moscow survive: Dozens of countries have barred Russia from much of the global financial system, upending its economy at home. China has had the opposite reaction to Russia's war on Ukraine. 'China-Russia relations represent the most stable, mature and strategically significant major-country relationship in the world today,' Wang Yi, China's Foreign Minister, said this month after meeting Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. By backing Russia so enthusiastically, China's leaders have put new strain on their country's relationship with the European Union. If Beijing had distanced itself from Moscow, Europe might have turned towards China as United States President Donald Trump threatened tariffs on European goods this year. European Union leaders met Chinese officials last night NZT at a summit in Beijing. They were expected to ask again that Xi Jinping, China's top leader, reduce China's economic and industrial support for Russia's war in Ukraine. Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, said this month that China's stance on the war in Ukraine would be 'a determining factor' for the bloc's relations with Beijing. 'China's unyielding support for Russia is creating heightened instability and insecurity here in Europe,' she said. 'We can say that China is de facto enabling Russia's war economy — we cannot accept this.' Shoppers take photos outside of a Russian-themed store in the border town of Manzhouli, in China's Inner Mongolia. China now makes 32% of the world's manufactured goods - more than the United States, Japan, Germany, South Korea, and Britain combined. Photo / Andrea Verdelli, the New York Times Much of the trade between China and Russia has long run through Manzhouli. Russia built a rail line through the city into northeastern China in 1900. Today, trains and trucks from Russia cross into China, many of them carrying timber or freshly cut boards: pine for construction and furniture, white birch for chopsticks, aspen for framing concrete and sturdy elm for coal mine supports. The flow underscores Russia's diminished economic position. It is now functionally an economic satellite of China, dependent on Beijing for manufactured goods while selling raw materials that China could, if it wanted to, buy elsewhere. Almost 6% of the entire Russian economy now consists of exports to China. That is a proportion equalled by Iran, another country under international sanctions. As part of pressure on Russia to accept a ceasefire, Trump threatened last week to impose high tariffs or other sanctions on countries trading with Russia, although he did not name China. Manzhouli's official economic strategy — 'Russian supply, Chinese processing' — underlines Russia's evolution into a supplier of raw materials to China's vast manufacturing sector, which dwarfs Russia's own. Russia depends on China for clothing, electronics, even cars. China's northbound exports have risen 71% since the start of the Ukraine war. Visitors at Matryoshka Square, a theme park in the border town of Manzhouli. Much of the trade between China and Russia has long run through Manzhouli. Photo / Andrea Verdelli, the New York Times The trade alliance shows up in other contexts, too. State media in China has tilted strongly towards Russia in the Ukraine war. Russian television channels have been gradually squeezing out American channels in Chinese hotels. China's sympathies show up on store shelves in Manzhouli: Stalin-brand vodka and ground coffee are on sale, and one store even specialises in busts of past Soviet leaders and matryoshka dolls that resemble President Vladimir Putin. The new embrace signals a turnaround in the two countries' relationship. During the 1950s, Soviet advisers helped a mostly rural, underdeveloped China build many of its early steel mills, railroads and weapons factories. Now, China produces 32% of the world's manufactured goods — more than the United States, Japan, Germany, South Korea, and Britain combined. Russia's share of global manufacturing? It's just 1.33%, even including Russia's weapons production, according to the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation. Trucks made in China parked at the border in Manzhouli. By late last summer, Chinese cars made up 60% of Russia's auto market, according to GlobalData Automotive. Photo / Andrea Verdelli, the New York Times China is also benefitting from the imports. By buying timber and other goods from Russia, through Manzhouli, Beijing has been able to avoid buying imports from the US and its allies. China used to buy raw materials such as rapeseed from Canada, for example, but has shifted to purchasing more of these goods from Russia after Canada mostly sided with President Joe Biden last year and then with Trump in imposing higher tariffs on Chinese goods. China retaliated against Canada by imposing tariffs of 100% on imports of canola oil and canola meal from Canada. China also began a trade case against Canadian rapeseed, targeting some of Canada's largest exports to China. At the Manzhouli Xinfeng Grain and Oil Industry Limited Company, bright red forklift trucks move sacks of supplies. The highly automated factory, less than 1.5km from the border, removes the hulls from Russian rapeseed and presses them to make canola oil. Huang Baoqiang, the managing director of a nearby lumber mill, said his company bought large quantities of timber from neighbouring Siberia and turned them into bed slats and other furniture components. The US Treasury Department has tried to block the use of dollars for transactions with Russia, but Huang said he was able to pay with Chinese renminbi or Russian roubles through VTB Bank. The bank, one of Russia's largest financial institutions, faced sanctions by the US and the EU soon after Russia invaded Ukraine. But while Russia and China increasingly trade with each other, there are a few signs of tension. The rail yard in Manzhouli. Soviet advisers helped build steel mills, railways and arms factories in China in the 1950s, but now Russia supplies raw materials in exchange for manufactured goods. Photo / Andrea Verdelli, the New York Times Russia has banned the shipment of freshly cut pines to China. So the bark is removed from pines, and the logs are cut into boards at sawmills in Siberia, to the annoyance of businesspeople such as Huang. China, in turn, imposed tariffs on imports of Russian coal at the start of last year after state-owned Chinese coal mines expanded output and complained of Russian competition. The biggest stress in the trade relationship involves cars. In 2021, Chinese cars weren't very popular in Russia. But after the invasion of Ukraine, Western automakers withdrew from the country, and Chinese automakers slashed prices. Chinese cars captured 60% of the Russian market by late summer last year, according to GlobalData Automotive, a research firm. Russia's own automakers had initially been expected to benefit from the retreat of their Western competitors and were disappointed by China's success. They persuaded Moscow to start collecting a US$7500 fee on imported cars. The fee, which started on October 1, has an exemption: It does not apply to used cars purchased by Russian citizens for their personal use. China's car exports to Russia in the first five months of this year plunged 58% from a year earlier. 'It's a big bucket of cold water on what Chinese automakers expected to be their top market for years to come,' said Stephen Dyer, head of the Asia automotive practice at AlixPartners, a consulting firm. Chinese entrepreneurs in Manzhouli are already exploiting the used car loophole in Russia's rules. A block from the Russian border, a year-old palace of a used car showroom in Manzhouli has towering bronze doors that open up to a 25m-high hall, all designed to lure Russian shoppers who want to beat the US$7500 fee. On sale are barely used BMWs, Land Rovers, Volkswagens and other popular brands no longer sold in Russia, as well as Chinese brands such as Zeekr and Hongqi. The staff explained that new cars were not available — but that used cars only a month old could be purchased and shipped. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. Written by: Keith Bradsher Photographs by: Andrea Verdelli ©2025 THE NEW YORK TIMES
RNZ News
3 days ago
- RNZ News
'James Bond wannabe' found guilty of trying to spy for Russia
United Kingdom correspondent Edward O'Driscoll spoke to Melissa Chan-Green about a British man who "dreamt of being like James Bond", and has been found guilty of trying to spy for Russia, as well as British Fighter jet which has finally taken flight after being stranded in India for a month. Tags: To embed this content on your own webpage, cut and paste the following: See terms of use.
