The Russians have significantly accelerated construction at a plant for the production of attack drones: what is known

Recently, the Russians have significantly accelerated construction at the Alabuga plant in southern Russia, where Shahed-type strike drones are manufactured.

This was reported by CNN.

It is noted that new buildings have appeared on the territory of the facility. Experts suggest that these are dormitories and production facilities.

From the end of 2024 to mid-July 2025, at least eight new warehouse facilities appeared on the territory of the enterprise.

In addition, after analyzing satellite images, analysts discovered a significant increase in staff quarters.

Thus, the image from July 12 showed at least 104 identical, fully or partially constructed rectangular buildings. Their layout is very similar to already constructed facilities used as dormitories for workers.

In February, there were only 14 such facilities. Active construction work probably began in March, when the snow melted.

However, there are signs that construction has accelerated significantly in recent weeks, as more than half of the residential structures under construction were not detected in the images from June 9.

The facility will house up to 40,000 workers once completed, according to an estimate by David Albright, a former UN weapons inspector at the US think tank ISIS. He added that this represents a “quite significant increase in drone production.”

Alabuga is believed to be the main facility for manufacturing the strike drones used by the Kremlin to attack Ukrainian cities. According to some experts, the ultimate goal of the enterprise may be to mass-produce drones for global export.

It was previously reported that even underage girls from the Alabuga Polytechnic educational institution, some of whom are only 16 years old, are being involved in assembling drones at the factory .

By the way, on June 15, units of the Special Operations Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine struck an important facility of the Russian military-industrial complex – a plant for the production of attack drones in the city of Yelabuga in Tatarstan.