Latest news with #Alabuga

RNZ News

3 days ago

Politics
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

Russia touts strike drones made in factory on TV, where teens appear to be working on them

CBC

7 days ago

Politics
CBC

Russia touts strike drones made in factory on TV, where teens appear to be working on them

A Russian factory, described by its director as the world's biggest maker of strike drones, has been shown on the Russian army's TV channel with teenagers helping make kamikaze drones to attack Ukraine. The footage, in a documentary film broadcast by the Zvezda channe l on Sunday, showed hundreds of large black completed Geran-2 suicide drones in rows inside the secretive facility, which has been targeted by Ukrainian long-range drones. Ukraine says Russia has used the Geran drones to terrorize and kill civilians in locations including its capital, Kyiv, where residents often shelter in metro stations during attacks. Russia says its drone and missile strikes target only military or military-related targets, and it denies deliberately targeting civilians — more than 13,000 of whom have been killed in Ukraine since the all-out war began in February 2022 after Russia invaded its neighbour, the United Nations says. Zvezda said the Alabuga factory, in Russia's Tatarstan region, invited school pupils to study at a college that the factory runs nearby once they had completed ninth grade so that they could study drone manufacturing there and then work at the factory when they had finished college. Young workers shown inside factory Young workers, including teenagers, were shown with their faces blurred out, studying computer screens or making and testing individual components, or assembling drones. Timur Shagivaleyev, the factory's general director, did not disclose detailed production figures. But he told Zvezda the initial plan had been to produce "several thousand Geran-2 drones" and that the factory was now producing nine times more than that. He did not say what period the figures referred to. A Russian think-tank close to the government suggested last month that Russia's drone production had jumped by 16.9 per cent in May compared with the previous month after Russian President Vladimir Putin called for output to be stepped up. Putin said in April that more than 1.5 million drones of various types had been produced last year but that Russian troops fighting on the front line in Ukraine needed more. More and more drones Both sides have deployed drones on a huge scale, using them to spot and hit targets not only on the battlefield but way beyond the front lines. Zvezda said the Alabuga factory had its own drone testing ground and showed rows of parked U.S. RAM pickup trucks carrying Geran-2 drones. It also showed one of them launching a drone. In May, Russia paraded combat drones that its forces use in the war in Ukraine on Moscow's Red Square in what state TV said was a first. The design of the Geran-2, which has a known range of at least 1,500 kilometres, originated in Iran, where an earlier version was made. They have been used to target Ukrainian energy infrastructure. Zvezda set the documentary to upbeat music, part of its mission to keep Russians interested in and supportive of the war. The factory is part of the so-called Alabuga Special Economic Zone, near the town of Yelabuga, which is more than 1,000 kilometres from the border with Ukraine.

Inside the ‘world's biggest' factory making Russian kamikaze drones to attack Ukraine

South China Morning Post

22-07-2025

Politics
South China Morning Post

Inside the ‘world's biggest' factory making Russian kamikaze drones to attack Ukraine

Russian TV shows teenagers making arms at 'world's biggest drone factory'

Japan Times

22-07-2025

Politics
Japan Times

Russian TV shows teenagers making arms at 'world's biggest drone factory'

A factory in Russia, described by its director as the world's biggest maker of strike drones, has been shown on the Russian army's TV channel with teenagers helping make kamikaze drones to attack Ukraine. The footage, in a documentary film broadcast by the Zvezda channel on Sunday, showed hundreds of large black completed Geran-2 suicide drones in rows inside the secretive facility, which has been targeted by Ukrainian long-range drones. Ukraine says Russia has used the Geran drones to terrorize and kill civilians in locations including the capital Kyiv, where residents often shelter in metro stations during attacks. Russia says its drone and missile strikes target only military or military-related targets and denies deliberately targeting civilians, more than 13,000 of whom have been killed in Ukraine since the war began in 2022, the United Nations says. Zvezda said the Alabuga factory, in Russia's Tatarstan region, invited school pupils to study at a college the factory runs nearby once they had completed ninth grade, at age 14 to 15, so that they could study drone manufacturing there and then work at the factory when they had finished college. Young workers, including teenagers, were shown with their faces blurred out, studying computer screens or making and testing individual components, or assembling drones. Timur Shagivaleyev, the factory's general director, did not disclose detailed production figures. But he told Zvezda the initial plan had been to produce "several thousand Geran-2 drones" and that the factory was now producing nine times more than that. He did not say what period the figures referred to. A Russian think tank close to the government last month suggested Russia's drone production had jumped by 16.9% in May compared to the previous month after Russian President Vladimir Putin called for output to be stepped up. Putin said in April that more than 1.5 million drones of various types had been produced last year, but that Russian troops fighting on the front line in Ukraine needed more. Both sides have deployed drones on a huge scale, using them to spot and hit targets not only on the battlefield but way beyond the front lines. Zvezda said the Alabuga factory had its own drone testing ground and showed rows of parked U.S. RAM pickup trucks carrying Geran-2 drones. It also showed one of them launching a drone. In May, Russia paraded combat drones that its forces use in the war in Ukraine on Moscow's Red Square in what state TV said was a first. The design of the Geran-2, which has a known range of at least 1,500 kilometers, originated in Iran where an earlier version was made. They have been used to target Ukrainian energy infrastructure. Zvezda set the documentary to upbeat music, part of its mission to keep Russians interested in and supportive of the war. The factory is part of the so-called Alabuga Special Economic Zone, which is near the town of Yelabuga, which is over 1,000 km from the border with Ukraine.

Russian TV shows teenagers at 'world's biggest drone factory' making arms to hit Ukraine

Yahoo

21-07-2025

Politics
Yahoo

Russian TV shows teenagers at 'world's biggest drone factory' making arms to hit Ukraine

By Andrew Osborn MOSCOW (Reuters) -A Russian factory, described by its director as the world's biggest maker of strike drones, has been shown on the Russian army's TV channel with teenagers helping make kamikaze drones to attack Ukraine. The footage, in a documentary film broadcast by the Zvezda channel on Sunday, showed hundreds of large black completed Geran-2 suicide drones in rows inside the secretive facility, which has been targeted by Ukrainian long-range drones. Ukraine says Russia has used the Geran drones to terrorise and kill civilians in locations including the capital Kyiv, where residents often shelter in metro stations during attacks. Russia says its drone and missile strikes target only military or military-related targets and denies deliberately targeting civilians, more than 13,000 of whom have been killed in Ukraine since the war began in 2022, the United Nations says. Zvezda said the Alabuga factory, in Russia's Tatarstan region, invited school pupils to study at a college the factory runs nearby once they had completed ninth grade (aged 14-15) so that they could study drone manufacturing there and then work at the factory when they had finished college. Young workers, including teenagers, were shown with their faces blurred out, studying computer screens or making and testing individual components, or assembling drones. Timur Shagivaleyev, the factory's general director, did not disclose detailed production figures. But he told Zvezda the initial plan had been to produce "several thousand Geran-2 drones" and that the factory was now producing nine times more than that. He did not say what period the figures referred to. A Russian think tank close to the government last month suggested Russia's drone production had jumped by 16.9% in May compared to the previous month after President Vladimir Putin called for output to be stepped up. Putin said in April that more than 1.5 million drones of various types had been produced last year, but that Russian troops fighting on the front line in Ukraine needed more. HUGE-SCALE USE OF DRONES Both sides have deployed drones on a huge scale, using them to spot and hit targets not only on the battlefield but way beyond the front lines. Zvezda said the Alabuga factory had its own drone testing ground and showed rows of parked U.S. RAM pickup trucks carrying Geran-2 drones. It also showed one of them launching a drone. In May, Russia paraded combat drones that its forces use in the war in Ukraine on Moscow's Red Square in what state TV said was a first. The design of the Geran-2, which has a known range of at least 1,500 km (932 miles), originated in Iran where an earlier version was made. They have been used to target Ukrainian energy infrastructure. Zvezda set the documentary to upbeat music, part of its mission to keep Russians interested in and supportive of the war. The factory is part of the so-called Alabuga Special Economic Zone, which is near the town of Yelabuga, which is over 1,000 km from the border with Ukraine. Solve the daily Crossword