African Women Tricked Into Building Russian War Drones

When 23-year-old Adau left South Sudan for Russia, she thought she was taking a step toward a better future. Instead, she ended up helping to build weapons of war inside one of Russia’s most secretive drone factories.

BBC made a full investigation about how she joined the Alabuga Start programme, a recruitment scheme that promised young women professional training in logistics, catering, and other industries. In reality, many participants were sent to work in drone assembly plants used to support Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

From Scholarship to Secret War Work

The programme targeted women aged 18 to 22, mainly from Africa but also from Latin America and Southeast Asia. It offered “scholarships” that included language lessons, housing, and the chance to earn around $600 per month.

Adau applied through what appeared to be an official South Sudanese government scholarship post. It took nearly a year to process her visa, but she was told she’d be trained as a tower crane operator, a field she saw as empowering and nontraditional for women.

Once she arrived in the Alabuga Special Economic Zone in the Republic of Tatarstan, she quickly realized things were not what they seemed. After a few months of Russian classes, she and dozens of others were taken straight to a factory filled with drones.

“We stepped in and saw drones everywhere,” she said. “Then they took us to our workstations.”

Building the Shahed 136

According to multiple intelligence reports and drone experts, the Alabuga zone is one of Russia’s main production hubs for Shahed 136 drones, known in Russia as the Geran-2. These are the same Iranian-designed drones used by Russian forces to strike Ukrainian cities almost every night.

“The reality of Alabuga is that it’s a war production facility,” said Spencer Faragasso from the Institute for Science and International Security. “Russia has openly admitted they are producing Shahed 136 drones there.”

Workers like Adau were asked to paint drone casings with chemicals that caused burns. “When I got home, my skin was peeling,” she recalled. “The fabric of our overalls became stiff from the chemicals.”

Alabuga’s management denies the claims, saying all workers receive full protective equipment and fair wages. But Adau’s paychecks told a different story.

“I was supposed to make $600,” she said. “After deductions for rent, classes, and food, I only got about $100.”

Drone Strike on the Drone Factory

Just two weeks after she began working, a Ukrainian drone strike hit the Alabuga zone. The blast shattered windows and damaged hostels that housed the foreign recruits.

“I woke up to the fire alarm. Windows were broken and people were running. When I looked up, I saw a drone coming through the sky,” she said.

Verified footage from that day matched one of Ukraine’s deepest strikes into Russian territory at the time. The drone destroyed a hostel near where Adau lived.

Months later, when she learned exactly what kind of drones she had helped build, it made sense why the site had been targeted.

“I felt terrible,” she said. “I realized I had been working on something that was killing people in Ukraine.”

Trapped and Disillusioned

Some women tried to flee after the attack, but their passports were reportedly taken for a period of time. Others stayed because they couldn’t afford the cost of returning home.

The South African government has since launched an investigation, warning citizens not to join Alabuga Start. International watchdogs now describe the program as a form of labor exploitation tied to Russia’s weapons production.

Yet some workers interviewed by the BBC described their experience as normal. One woman said, “Every company has rules. If you miss work, of course they deduct pay. Alabuga doesn’t hold anyone hostage.”

Still, Adau says the deception left her broken. “There was a time when I went back to my hostel and cried,” she said. “It felt horrible having a hand in constructing something that takes lives.”

DroneXL’s Take

This story is a harsh reminder of the hidden cost behind every drone built for war. As a drone pilot, I’ve always admired how UAVs can save lives—searching for survivors, mapping disaster zones, or filming beauty from above.

But stories like this show a darker side of the same technology. When people are tricked into helping build drones that destroy homes and cities, it exposes how far some governments will go to sustain war production.

Drones are tools, but what matters most is who builds them and what they’re built for. That’s a truth every pilot, engineer, and manufacturer should remember before they press “take off.”

Photo credit: Institute for Science and International Security