In brief
The Ukrainian Center for Security and Cooperation says a transnational network channels foreign women into assembling Geran attack drones in Russia under the guise of education and civilian work.
The Ukrainian Center for Security and Cooperation says it has identified a network recruiting foreign women through the Alabuga Start programme to assemble Geran attack drones. According to the centre, recruits are sent to Russia’s Alabuga special economic zone to build drones used to strike civilian infrastructure in Ukraine.
The centre says the network involves foreign female recruiters and draws women from Uganda, Ethiopia, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Kenya, The Gambia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Sri Lanka. It says the programme has operated since 2022, initially advertising civilian jobs, leisure activities and relocation to Russia, with recruitment conducted through educational and cultural channels.
Solomiia Khoma, an expert at the centre, said the recruitment helps the Kremlin address labour shortages in its military-industrial sector. The cited report did not specify how many women had been recruited or how many drones they had helped produce.
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