The Russian Federation has denied reports that its firm is recruiting young Nigerian women and migrant workers from other countries in Africa to build suicide bombs and drones for Russia in its war against Ukraine.
A recent report said a Russian firm is allegedly recruiting hundreds of young foreign women, mainly from Africa, including South Africa, to manufacture drones, which it is using to attack Ukraine.
The women, aged between 18 and 22, though in the past some have been younger, are not told they are being recruited to Russia to make drones, according to the report by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime (GI-TOC).
It said that “the Russian intelligence services consider such people ‘one-time’ assets and have never been worried about them,” one Ukrainian intelligence officer said.
“Teenagers and young people are easier to recruit for such actions when you characterise what they’re being asked to do as some sort of game,” he added.
The issue became intense following an alleged gruesome tactic, such that the SBU, Ukraine’s domestic security service, and National Police have taken to visiting schools and lecturing Ukrainian students on the dangers of foreign recruitment under the rubric, “Burn the FSB Officer,” referring to Russia’s domestic security service.
The report, “Who is making Russia’s drones? — The migrant women exploited for Russia’s war economy”, said the women were recruited by a private company, Alabuga Start, with promises of good salaries and educational opportunities. The company is part of the Alabuga Special Economic Zone (Alabuga SEZ), an industrial park in Yelabuga, east of Moscow.
The offer of job opportunities to the young Africans comes with good pay of $500 per month, but the report said that some recruits complained of racism and harassment. Others said they were subjected to excess surveillance and had to sign non-disclosure agreements about their work.
The firm has been manufacturing Iranian Shahed drones since late 2022 after Russia invaded Ukraine, in a deal with the Iranian company Sahara Thunder — a subsidiary of the Iranian Ministry of Defence and Armed Forces, the report said.
However, when contacted on Monday, the spokesman of the Russian Embassy in Abuja, Yuri Paramanov, denied the report, saying, “It is not the truth at all”.
His response suggests his country is being put in a bad light once again by anti-Russian forces bent on exploiting fake news, which the Russian authorities have insisted will not deter Russia from achieving its war aims and protecting its sovereign integrity.
