Russia uses African women to assemble drones for Ukraine War

A s Ukraine endures record-breaking waves of drone and missile attacks, French newspaper Le Monde reports disturbing details about how Russia is expanding its arsenal: by covertly enlisting young African women to build kamikaze drones on its soil.

What is happening?

In June alone, Russia launched around 3,000 Iranian-designed Shahed drones at Ukraine — nearly 10% of the total used in over three years of war, according to President Volodymyr Zelensky. These swarms, though largely intercepted, are wearing down Ukraine’s air defences and striking fear into civilians.

Moscow’s relentless drone campaign is made possible by a sharp rise in domestic drone production. Originally supplied by Iran, the Shahed 136 drones are now manufactured in Russia, especially in Tatarstan, over 1,000 kilometres east of Moscow. These drones, rebranded as Geran-2 after modification, are assembled at the Alabuga Special Economic Zone (SEZ) with help from foreign labour.

Where and when?

The epicentre of this expansion is the Alabuga SEZ near Elabuga, where since 2023, hundreds of African women — mainly from Uganda, Mali, Cameroon, Sierra Leone, Botswana, Zimbabwe and South Sudan — have been recruited under a so-called “professional training programme.”