Russia’s main Shahed drone factory has become one of the country’s most heavily defended sites, alongside President Vladimir Putin’s Valdai residence, according to satellite imagery published on Wednesday, Oct. 21.
The expanding defenses surround the Alabuga Special Economic Zone in Tatarstan, where a separate US research report describes forced labor involving North Korean workers and the exploitation of foreign women recruited largely from Africa.
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Radio Svoboda identified 33 air-defense positions around the complex, including new concrete towers and raised platforms intended for Pantsir or Tor air-defense systems.
The site also has towers for heavy anti-aircraft machine guns and structures supporting anti-drone barriers over production buildings.
The concentration of defenses puts Alabuga alongside Putin’s Valdai residence, where Radio Svoboda identified 31 towers and two S-300 or S-400 missile positions. The outlet reported more than 100 new air-defense positions across Moscow and the surrounding region since the full-scale invasion. Its findings do not establish a definitive national ranking of the best-protected sites.
Towers, cables and reinforced buildings
An investigation by the Institute for Science and International Security, updated on Sept. 25, used high-resolution Vantor and Airbus imagery to document two defensive perimeters around Alabuga’s production facilities.
Shorter towers surround the main production buildings. A taller outer ring encloses a wider area, including the neighboring Alabuga-Volokno plant, which supplies carbon fiber used in drone manufacturing.
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Cables strung between the towers are intended to intercept incoming drones or cruise missiles before they reach the buildings, or force them to fly higher and become more exposed to air defenses, the institute said.
Satellite images also show new production buildings being hardened with layers of earth and reinforced concrete.
Kyiv Post previously reported on Alabuga’s expansion, including new industrial buildings and dormitories for foreign workers.
North Korean workers lose most of their wages
A report published on Oct. 14 by the Center for Strategic and International Studies and the George W. Bush Institute describes Alabuga as a site of human trafficking and serious labor abuses.
The report cites Ukrainian intelligence estimates of up to 12,000 North Korean workers assigned to the complex. Its underlying source, however, is a November 2025 intelligence announcement describing plans to bring in that number, previously covered by Kyiv Post.
The figure therefore should not be treated as an independently verified count of workers currently at the factory.
According to the report, North Korean laborers earn approximately $2.50 an hour, while their government withholds 70–90% of their wages. At that rate, a 12-hour shift would generate $30 before deductions, leaving the worker between $3 and $9.
The authors describe the arrangement as state-sponsored trafficking, with minders restricting workers’ movements and Pyongyang collecting most of their earnings.
The report also notes that the overseas labor arrangement violates UN sanctions requiring countries to repatriate North Korean workers by December 2019.
Foreign recruits promised different jobs
Alabuga also recruits Russian students as young as 15 under a “work experience” program, according to the CSIS–Bush Institute report. They reportedly face long shifts, production quotas and threats of fines if they tell their families what they build.
Foreign women recruited through the Alabuga Start program are promised hospitality jobs, educational opportunities and salaries starting above $500 a month, the report said. Some instead find themselves assigned to weapons production.
Their pay is reduced by deductions for flights, accommodation, medical care and mandatory Russian-language classes. The report also describes passport confiscation, restrictions on movement and threats against workers who discuss their jobs.
Kyiv Post previously reported on African and Asian women misled into assembling drones, drawing on interviews with recruits who said their actual work differed from what they had been promised.
These accounts distinguish between agreeing to travel to Russia for employment and consenting to the work and conditions encountered after arrival.
Expanding production despite Ukrainian strikes
Located more than 1,000 kilometers from Ukraine, Alabuga is a principal Russian production center for Iranian-designed Shahed attack drones and their Russian Geran variants.
The CSIS–Bush Institute report describes a complex capable of producing more than 5,500 drones a month, with extensive construction supporting its growing workforce and output.
Ukraine has repeatedly targeted the site. An April 2024 strike injured 13 students employed at the complex, according to reports at the time.
Ukraine’s General Staff also confirmed a strike on the facility in June 2025. The publicly available reporting does not establish the extent of any lasting reduction in production.
The drones manufactured at Alabuga form part of Russia’s long-range bombardment of Ukraine. The UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission recorded 165 civilians killed and 1,119 injured by long-range missiles and drones in September 2026. Those figures cover multiple weapon types and cannot be attributed solely to Alabuga-made drones.
Ukraine has sought US Tomahawk cruise missiles to strengthen its ability to strike military-industrial targets deep inside Russia. President Volodymyr Zelensky pressed the request during his October 2025 visit to Washington, but the meeting ended without a commitment to supply them.
Putin had warned that providing Tomahawks would damage US-Russian relations, while Trump publicly raised concerns about escalation and American stockpiles.
Stefan Korshak is the Kyiv Post Senior Defense Correspondent. He is from Houston Texas, is a Yalie and since the mid-1990s has worked as correspondent/photographer for newswire, newspapers, television and radio. He has reported from five wars but most enjoys doing articles on wildlife and nature. You can read his weekly blog on the Russo-Ukraine War on Facebook, Substack and Medium. His new book on the 2022 Siege of Mariupol is available on Amazon UK and Amazon US.