Best of AP — First Winner

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Africans recruited to work in Russia say they were duped into building drones for use in Ukraine

Parts of downed Shahed drones launched by Russia are piled in a storage room of a research laboratory in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Aug. 28, 2024. AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka
Russia Ukraine War Drone Factory

Other outlets have written about a plant in Tatarstan where Russia is making the drones swarming Ukraine’s skies. But Emma Burrows was the first to speak to the African women recruited to work there. 

She tracked them down online, finding a chat group for employees buried deep inside social media that included their contact information. This was yet another demonstration of a security lapse on Russia’s part and dogged reporting on Burrows’ part.  

The women were told not to speak to outsiders and are heavily monitored — and many never responded or were too afraid to be interviewed. But a handful agreed to speak after Burrows carefully gained their trust.  

She exchanged voice messages every few days with one woman for months. Some of the women complained of long hours under constant surveillance, of broken promises about wages, and of working with caustic chemicals that left their skin pockmarked and itching.  

In Kyiv, Lori Hinnant confirmed the differences in materials and a change in quality from the Iranian-made drones to the ones made in Russia. Meanwhile, Burrows pored through hundreds of pages of documents about the plant and analyzed them with Hinnant. The two also analyzed publicly posted video to match it visually with what the leaked documents showed. Hinnant helped shepherd the reporting throughout, and then Brian Friedman did a careful edit, helping to highlight the extremely precarious position these women are in. 

Following publication of the story, Google, Meta and TikTok took down accounts and removed social media posts from the factory aimed at recruiting women. 

In the judges’ words, this is a story an investigative journalist might hear about and pass on because of the level of work that would be involved in reporting it. But AP reporters persevered and told a story that strongly resonated with our customers and our readers. 

For shining a spotlight on a story that otherwise would have remained untold, Burrows and Hinnant earn this week’s Best of AP — First Winner.

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