Ukrainian journalists have identified more than 2,000 workers at factories producing Shahed drones.
The investigation was published by Slidstvo.Info in collaboration with the KibOrg community. Researchers not only collected the names of employees but also discovered that one of them is a member of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB).
Currently, two main factories in Russia supply Shahed drones: one in Tatarstan and another in Udmurtia.
In Yelabuga, Tatarstan, the Alabuga plant employs about 1,200 people, according to leaked information. These drones have been used in attacks on civilian infrastructure in Ukraine.
Journalists highlighted Ildus Sagitov, an advisor to the plant’s CEO. No photo of him could be found, likely because of his FSB connections. Sagitov also appears in the Myrotvorets database as deputy head of an FSB unit in Crimea and Sevastopol (colonel, 2015). In 2014, he was awarded a medal “For the Defense of the Republic of Crimea.”
The plant’s CEO, Timur Shagivaleev, has been notified in absentia of suspicion by Ukraine’s Office of the Prosecutor General and the Security Service of Ukraine. Under his leadership, over 13,000 Shahed drones were delivered to the Russian armed forces.
The second large drone factory is located in Izhevsk, Udmurtia, at the Kupol plant, employing over 1,100 workers.
Information about the personnel at both plants was obtained through a hack of internal databases, which became available to journalists and activists.
Since the start of the full-scale invasion, the Security Service of Ukraine (SSU) has registered over 1,600 criminal cases related to drone attacks on civilian targets. These attacks have killed at least 253 people.
