A Russian factory is using child laborers to assemble Iranian “suicide” drones destined for Ukraine

A polytechnic school in Russia's Tatarstan, a region about 900 kilometers east of Moscow, uses manufacturing facilities that are part of a nearby special economic zone to assemble Iranian attack drones and is increasingly employing underage students as its workforce, many of whom often work in exploitative conditions.

The revelations at Alabuga Polytechnic University raise troubling questions about how far Russian authorities will escalate the war effort, and how advanced Iranian weapons — which are increasingly being used to bomb Ukrainian cities and have only recently been made available in Russia — could contribute to escalating tensions and increasing civilian casualties.

Independent Russian media outlets Protokol and Razvorot, which published a series of investigations in July, first reported on the use of underage students as drone workers and details of the production facilities.

Since then, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty's Idel.Realities has spoken to students who report grueling working conditions and interviewed dozens of parents whose children were enrolled at Alabuga Polytechnic University – some of them as young as 15 – who say their children have been forced to work extremely long hours, often without breaks or adequate meals, and in hostile conditions that have severely affected their mental health.

"My son registered and two and a half months later he called me to take him with him," Zhanna, who asked to be used only by her first name to protect herself from retaliation when talking about the operation, told Radio Free Europe. "He told me on the phone, 'Come and take me or I'll die,' so I took him right away."

Zhanna, who asked not to give her minor son's name, said she sent him from Nizhny Novgorod to study at Alabuga Polytechnic University in 2022 because it is recognized as the leading technical institution in Russia.

The school offered students – often aged 15 to 18 – the opportunity to pursue vocational training through a dual program that combined classroom training with practical work experience. Students were also promised an opportunity to work and earn a competitive salary of up to 70,000 rubles ($700) per month as part of the internship, which could boost their professional development.

Instead, the enrollees were encouraged, and in some cases pressured, to work at the drone facility, where the wages of the mostly underage workers depend on meeting strict production quotas.

“This is a textbook definition of what exploitation is,” Sergei Podsytnik, an investigative journalist at Protokol who worked on the series of reports, told Radio Free Europe. “[Students] collect drones, with work taking precedence over study.”

The pressure to meet these quotas reportedly resulted in grueling workdays – some shifts lasting up to 15 hours – with little time for sleep or proper meals. Overtime is often worked without pay, which is another indicator of potential labor law violations. Exhausted students also reported not always meeting their quotas, resulting in not receiving the salary initially promised by the school. Many students came from disadvantaged backgrounds and relied on their own income to cover tuition, room and board, sending the rest home.

Other parents, such as B. Marina, said they decided to withdraw their daughter from the program when she discovered that she was working in unsafe conditions and that school staff had instructed students not to tell their parents about the drone assembly work.

“This was the last straw for me,” Marina, who also asked not to be identified, told Radio Free Europe. “This is a dangerous production process that uses dangerous chemicals. Also, they don't let the children tell their parents anything.”

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty has asked several questions to various employees and administrators at Alabuga Polytechnic University, but has not received any answers.

Iranian drone production in Russia

The complicated and troubling dynamics at Alabuga Polytechnic University stem from increased military cooperation between Iran and Russia, which has accelerated since Moscow's large-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Iran has said it provided drones to Russia before the war, but not after. However, US intelligence officials have warned for months of continued supplies and deepening cooperation between Moscow and Tehran, saying both sides are exploring ways to set up a production facility for Iranian drones in Russia.

According to the Wall Street Journal, on January 5, an Iranian delegation visited Yelabuga in Tatarstan and inspected a potential site for such a plant in the Alabuga Special Economic Zone near the Alabuga Polytechnic University. US officials released satellite images of the plant under construction in April.

Russia already has a number of unarmed aerial vehicles (UAVs) used primarily for surveillance and artillery reconnaissance, but is increasingly turning to Tehran for combat drones.

After being forced to give up Ukrainian territory that its troops had captured in the early stages of the war, Moscow adopted a strategy of relentless airstrikes on Ukrainian cities. These attacks often use a combination of cruise missiles and self-detonating drones loaded with explosives to deprive civilians in Ukraine of electricity and running water.

So far, Iran has mainly supplied Russia with so-called suicide drones (Shahed-136), which contain a small amount of explosives that can detonate upon impact with a target, military experts report.

By purchasing its own domestic assembly line, Russia could dramatically increase its inventory of these relatively inexpensive but highly destructive weapons systems.

The deal also offers significant economic and political benefits for Iran, which is trying to portray itself as neutral in the war in Ukraine. However, the appearance of Iranian-made drones over Ukrainian cities has prompted threats of new economic sanctions from the West. The United States, the European Union and the United Kingdom have also issued regulations in recent months to ban the supply of drone components to Russia and Iran.

The Washington Post reported in November 2022, citing unidentified US intelligence officials, that the deal to supply Iranian drone schematics and materials for production in Russia was because Iranian leaders believed the deal would allow Tehran to evade new sanctions.

Recruitment of foreigners and patriotic education

Alabuga Polytechnic University is not officially a college. All students are officially enrolled at the nearby Yelabuga Polytechnic College, although the Alabuga institution exists on paper as a specialized program for students seeking to enter the high-tech industry.

Around 1,000 students are currently studying at Alabuga Polytechnic University, several hundred of whom – mostly between the ages of 15 and 17 – are involved in assembling Iran's drones.

In addition to the work on drones, there are other signs that in Russia the lines between the education system and the country's military are blurring in the face of the war in Ukraine.

According to current and former students of Alabuga Polytechnic University, team building and organized extracurricular activities at the school often have a “patriotic” character, aimed at familiarizing students with official government accounts of international events or reproducing state television speeches.

Organized paintball games have become a staple for students, especially first-year students, who are encouraged to compete and then play together against more experienced players from outside. Educators and administrators routinely refer to paintball as part of a “patriotic” education designed to complement the technical aspect of the course.

In one case, a group of young students were painted as Soviet soldiers against outside players dressed as troops from Nazi Germany in a capture the flag contest that simulated the Battle of Stalingrad in World War II. According to one student, the Nazi flag featured the compass symbol used by the NATO military alliance instead of the swastika used by Nazi Germany.

Other examples of staff political lectures are more direct. In a recording obtained by Radio Free Europe on June 16, a senior administration official can be heard explaining to young people that NATO began a hybrid war against Russia in 2011 and that it is slowly becoming more open. The man goes on to tell the students that their hard work and long days at the drone factory are part of a nationwide war against the West and that their patriotism will be rewarded.

Some students and parents identified the man on the recording as Timur Shagivaleev, the general director of the special economic zone where the Alabuga Polytechnic University and the drone factory operate.

Shagivalev did not respond to Radio Free Europe's request for comment.

The man in the recording urges students not to take a break and to continue working "even if it's mom's birthday" before ending his speech with the words "Long live our great country."

Several current and former students told RFE/RL that students who work at the drone factory are often praised by staff, while those who refuse or ask to be transferred due to the heavy workload are often publicly shamed. In some cases – according to recordings heard by RFE/RL – staff encourage students to bully others who are not considered “patriotic” enough.

According to research by Protokol and Razvorot, Alabuga Polytechnic University has also started attracting foreign students. Most of them come from African countries, but also from Central Asia and Azerbaijan, where they are promised a "world-class" salary as part of the dual "World Experience" program.

However, these foreign students are then entrusted with low-skilled and low-skilled tasks on campus and in the special economic zone, such as caretaking work, and also receive lower wages than originally promised./Rferl/