African women in Russia were tricked into producing weapons for the war against Ukraine
Advertisements on social media attracted young African women, promising them a free plane ticket and financial assistance to travel to Europe. To participate, all you had to do was pass a test game that tested your knowledge of 100 Russian words. However, according to The Associated Press, the reality turned out to be completely different.
Instead of the promised job in the hotel business or catering, many women learned about the true essence of the offer only after arriving in Tatarstan. They had to work at a military factory where Iranian attack drones are assembled. The work was hard and dangerous, with significant violations of working conditions: long shifts under constant supervision, broken promises of pay, and dangerous chemicals that left marks on the skin.
Faced with a labor shortage, Russia is actively recruiting young women aged 18-22 from countries such as Uganda, Kenya, South Sudan, Rwanda, Sierra Leone and Nigeria, as well as from Sri Lanka and other regions of Asia and Latin America . These campaigns are expanding to include more and more countries to ensure the production of weapons.
As a result, at one of the main Russian defense plants, located in the Special Economic Zone “Alabuga” 1000 km east of Moscow, unskilled workers, in particular African women, work alongside 16-year-old vocational school students. They are involved in assembling drones intended for strikes on Ukraine.
One of the African women, having left her job in her homeland, agreed to the Russian proposal, but admitted that she did not know how to make drones at all. The AP obtained satellite images of the complex, internal documents and conducted interviews with African women who were victims of this fraudulent campaign. Journalists also examined hundreds of videos from the online recruitment program “Alabuga Start” to better understand the living and working conditions at the plant.
One of the women documented her journey in detail, taking pictures at the airport, having lunch on board the plane, and taking pictures of the flight map, believing she was heading to Europe. Only after arriving at “Alabuga” did she realize that she had been deceived.
“The company is only engaged in the production of drones. Nothing more. I regret and curse the day I started doing all this”, she admitted in an interview with AP.
