Russian propaganda media has released a video from a factory where the Geran-2 (Shahed-136) attack drones, which Russia uses to attack Ukrainian infrastructure, are assembled and tested. The production is concentrated in the Alabuga special economic zone in Tatarstan, about 10 km from the city of Yelabuga.
The video footage shows the internal organization of the plant and the thousands of employees, mostly students, who live, study, and work there.
The enterprise complex includes workshops for assembling composite hulls, producing engines, casting metal parts, as well as for manufacturing electronic circuits and wires. In addition to production facilities, according to Russian media, the territory includes housing for employees, a medical center and a facility for violators of internal rules. In addition, the complex has garages-hangars with "shaheeds" and its own drone port, where they are launched.
According to GUR, currently about 170 "Shaheeds" are being produced daily in Alabuz, and by the end of 2025, this is expected to increase to 190 units per day. Experts note that such a production rate will allow launching massive attacks on Ukraine, which are potentially capable of overloading Ukrainian air defense systems.
The representative of the German Bundeswehr, Major General Christian Freuding, noted that Russia intends to launch up to 2,000 drones into Ukraine at the same time, and modern air defense systems, in particular Patriot, are not optimized to repel large swarms of attack drones at the same time.
Military commentator Yigal Levin noted that facilities like those in Alabuga are considered legitimate military targets because their activities directly contribute to terrorist attacks. He also stressed that the display of such infrastructure is an attempt by the Russian Federation to demonstratively intimidate the international community.