Novaya Gazeta Europe says "up to 25,000" North Koreans in Russia's drone plants; The Insider says "about 25,000"

What both carry. A sanctions monitoring group puts as many as 25,000 North Koreans on drone assembly lines in Russia, Alabuga among them. Two reports carry the number. Both read the same document, so this is one account, not two.

Where they part.

Report	The number	The objection	The count behind it
Novaya Gazeta Europe	"up to 25,000" — a ceiling	Carried: one state in the group "considers this estimate inflated"; the report does not say which	Named: Ukrainian intelligence counted about 12,000 at Alabuga alone in November 2025
The Insider	"about 25,000" — a central estimate	Not in the headline	Not in the headline

The money. Only Novaya Gazeta Europe carries the rest of the group's findings: North Koreans at such plants earn about $7,500 a year, five times what they could earn in China; North Korean authorities take most of it, and in some cases more than the worker earned; that gave North Korea an extra $800m in 2025, spent on nuclear and missile programmes; and Russia's consulate in North Korea issued more than 35,000 student visas in 2025 — the report calls this a way round the ban on employing them.

Not settled. Who counted the workers on the ground. Which state calls the estimate inflated, and on what grounds. Neither report carries a reply from Moscow or Pyongyang. No worker is named, quoted or described in either. And of The Insider we hold only the headline, not the text beneath it.

What this is about. A group set up to watch sanctions on North Korea says tens of thousands of North Koreans are assembling drones inside Russia, and that most of their pay is taken from them by their own government.

How it got here. Russia invaded Ukraine at full scale in February 2022; the war itself began in 2014. Drones became central to it, and Alabuga — a special economic zone in Russia's Tatarstan region — became one of the places they are built. Separately, and for decades, the UN Security Council has banned North Korea's nuclear and missile programmes and, to starve them of hard currency, barred other countries from employing North Korean workers. A UN panel of experts monitored those sanctions until April 2024, when, Novaya Gazeta Europe reports, Russia — a permanent Security Council member with a veto — blocked the renewal of its mandate. In October 2024 the United States and South Korea set up a replacement outside the UN; Germany, France, Japan, the United Kingdom and Australia are among the states now taking part, and it works from their intelligence services' information. Its report on North Korean labour abroad is the document both reports here are reading.

Who is in it and why. Russia needs workers and drones. North Korea needs currency, and by the group's account takes the wages. Ukraine's military intelligence produced the plant-level count and is on the receiving end of the weapons. The monitoring group is made of states that want these sanctions enforced, and neither Russia nor North Korea is in it — which is why its figures are an interested party's claim, however careful, rather than a neutral census.

What is at stake. If the count holds, it is sanctions evasion and war production measured in the same number. If it is inflated, one government inside the group has already said so — anonymously.

Where it stands. Nothing we hold carries an answer from Moscow or Pyongyang.

What is being argued about

A sanctions monitoring group's count of North Korean workers in Russian drone plants, and the objection to it from inside the group
Wages taken by Pyongyang: about $7,500 a year each, $800m in 2025, spent on nuclear and missile programmes
Student visas as a route round the ban on employing North Koreans abroad
Why the monitoring group exists at all — Russia's block on the UN expert panel

One document, two numbersSide by side

Report	What it said	Hedged?
Novaya Gazeta Europe	"Russia has drawn up to 25,000 North Koreans into drone assembly"	Yes — carries the group's note that one participating state considers the estimate inflated, and says the state is not identified
The Insider	"About 25,000 North Koreans are employed in Russian drone production — report"	Source credited as "a report"; the number is given flat, and the objection does not appear

Both reports are reading the same monitoring group report. Of The Insider we hold only the headline.

Sources N Novaya Gazeta Europe T The Insider

How a number with no counter came to be publishedTimeline

April 2024— no time published Russia blocked the renewal of the UN expert panel's mandate on North Korea sanctions at the Security Councilas reported by Novaya Gazeta Europe
October 2024— no time published The United States and South Korea set up a monitoring group outside the UN; Germany, France, Japan, the UK and Australia are among those now taking partit works from those states' intelligence services
November 2025— no time published Ukrainian intelligence counted North Koreans working at Alabuga alone about 12,000cited by the monitoring group
During 2025— no time published The monitoring group says Russia's consulate in North Korea issued student visas to North Korean citizens more than 35,000described as a route round the employment ban
During 2025— no time published The monitoring group says North Korea took additional revenue from its citizens' wages abroad, for nuclear and missile programmes $800mworkers earn about $7,500 a year each
Thu 17 Sep 202612:27 printed on the report The Insider reports the figure as a central estimate about 25,000headline only in what we hold
Thu 17 Sep 202612:51 printed on the report Novaya Gazeta Europe reports the figure as a ceiling, with the Alabuga count and an unnamed state's objection to it up to 25,000no Russian or North Korean reply carried

Dates and figures as given by Novaya Gazeta Europe. Publication times are those printed on the two reports.

Sources N Novaya Gazeta Europe T The Insider

The bias in this coverageBias

One estimate, three distances from it

The fuller report hands the 25,000 figure to a monitoring group, hands that group's 12,000 figure for one plant to Ukrainian intelligence, and then carries an objection that the estimate is too high — from a member state it does not name. The shorter report keeps the number, drops the objection, and turns a ceiling into an approximation. Neither carries a word from Moscow or Pyongyang.

2 reports we hold on this 1 reports carrying the objection to the figure 0 the objecting state named 0 reports carrying a Russian or North Korean response

Counted in dollars

The workers appear as annual earnings, visa counts and a national revenue total; not one is named, quoted or described. The report says most of what they earn is taken from them, in some cases more than they earned, and sources that to the same document. It also says why the document exists at all: Russia blocked the renewal of the UN expert panel's mandate.

0 workers named or quoted 1 reports explaining why the monitoring group exists

Scored without the mastheads. Where the two passes differ, both are kept.

Sources N Novaya Gazeta Europe T The Insider

Claims and verdicts

unverified Up to 25,000 North Koreans work assembling drones at Russian plants, including Alabuga.

Novaya Gazeta Europe and The Insider both carry the figure, but both are reporting the same document — the Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team report — so this is one account, not two. The underlying 12,000-at-Alabuga estimate is Ukrainian intelligence data, and the report itself records that one participating state considers it inflated.

Checked against 2 sources:

N Novaya Gazeta Europe T The Insider

unverified North Korea took $800 million in 2025 from the wages of its citizens working abroad, money that goes to its nuclear and missile programmes.

Only Novaya Gazeta Europe carries the figure, sourced to the same monitoring group report; The Insider's report does not give it. No second account and no contradiction.

Checked against 2 sources:

N Novaya Gazeta Europe T The Insider

unverified Russia issues North Koreans student visas to get around the UN ban on their employment, and its consulate issued more than 35,000 such visas in 2025.

This rests on one report, Novaya Gazeta Europe, quoting the monitoring group; no other report we hold on this event carries the visa figure or a Russian response to it.

Checked against 1 source:

N Novaya Gazeta Europe

Who wrote it

N Novaya Gazeta. Evropa Novaya Gazeta Europe

What the bias passes found in their reporting

Actor named Names Russia as the actor in the headline and in the first line.×1

Anonymous sourcing Everything rests on a foreign newspaper citing two unnamed diplomats.×1

A party's label carried inside a quote, unmarked the Kremlin spokesman's phrase for the Ukrainian government is reproduced without a note×1

Asserted not attributed A commentator predicts the 80% will be fabricated×1

Claims we checked that rest on their reporting

2 misleading2 disputed9 unverified3 true

From 764 reports we hold under this byline, at Novaya Gazeta Europe. Two independent readings, each made without the masthead, a quote attached to every tag. A record, never a rating. Their full record →

The bylines on the reports this story is built from. Hover one for what our passes have measured on their reporting. · 1 report we hold carries no byline — we do not invent one.

Coverage, outlet by outlet

N Novaya Gazeta Europe — exile

Россия привлекла к сборке дронов до 25 тысяч северокорейцев. Большую часть их дохода забирает Пхеньян

The only report we hold that carries the caveats: the objection from an unnamed participating state, the Ukrainian intelligence origin of the 12,000 figure for Alabuga, the $7,500 wages, the 35,000 student visas, the

На российских предприятиях по сборке дронов, в том числе в «Алабуге», работают до 25 тысяч северокорейцев. Об этом говорится в докладе Многосторонней мониторинговой группы (MSMT) за соблюдением санкций Совбеза ООН в отношении КНДР. Документ посвящен тому, как страна, несмотря на запрет, использует труд своих граждан за рубежом. MSMT ссылается на данные украинской разведки, по которым в ноябре 2025 года только в «Алабуге» работали порядка 12 тысяч северокорейцев. При этом в докладе отмечается, что одно из государств, участвующих в деятельности группы, считает эту оценку завышенной. О какой имен

Hedged or stated: the objection to the headline figure is carried, but the state making it is not named — “При этом в докладе отмечается, что одно из государств, участвующих в деятельности группы, считает эту оценку завышенной.”

Sourcing: the plant-level figure is sourced at two removes — a monitoring group citing Ukrainian intelligence — “MSMT ссылается на данные украинской разведки, по которым в ноябре 2025 года только в «Алабуге» работали порядка 12 тысяч северокорейцев.”

Headline against body: headline asserts flat who takes the money; the body attributes the same claim to a document — “Большую часть их дохода забирает Пхеньян”

Whose voice: the workers appear as an annual dollar figure; none is named, quoted or described anywhere in the report — “На таких предприятиях в России северокорейцы зарабатывают порядка 7500 долларов в год, выяснила MSMT.”

Who is named as acting: the report says why the monitoring group exists, naming Russia's veto as the cause — “Группа возникла после того, как в апреле 2024 года Россия заблокировала в Совбезе ООН продление мандата официальной Группы экспертов ООН по санкциям против Северной Кореи.”

Which measure was chosen: figure given as a ceiling, with Russia named as the actor — “Россия привлекла к сборке дронов до 25 тысяч северокорейцев.”

Naming the gap: carries the objection to the count and says the objector is not identified — “в докладе отмечается, что одно из государств, участвующих в деятельности группы, считает эту оценку завышенной. О какой именно стране идет речь — не уточняется.”

Sourcing: the plant-level figure is Ukrainian intelligence, attributed inside the sentence — “MSMT ссылается на данные украинской разведки, по которым в ноябре 2025 года только в «Алабуге» работали порядка 12 тысяч северокорейцев.”

Asserted versus attributed: visa workaround stated flat as purpose, attribution follows a sentence later — “Чтобы обойти международный запрет, Россия выдает гражданам КНДР учебные визы.”

Who is named as acting: workers are only acted upon; Pyongyang takes, they never speak — “Большую часть денег, которые зарабатывают северокорейцы на сборке дронов в России, изымают у них власти КНДР.”

Read it at Novaya Gazeta Europe → https://novayagazeta.eu/articles/2026/09/17/rossiia-privlekla-k-sborke-…

T The Insider — exile

В российском производстве дронов заняты около 25 тысяч северокорейцев — доклад

Turns the ceiling into a central estimate — "about 25,000" — and credits it in the headline to "a report"; we hold the headline only.

Available in English Россия всё шире привлекает граждан Северной Кореи к сборке боевых беспилотников для войны против Украины, обходя международные санкции и одновременно давая Пхеньяну важный источник валютной выручки для его незаконных военных программ. Об этом говорится в докладе Многосторонней группы мониторинга санкций (MSMT), объединяющей США и их союзников. По оценке авторов доклада, до 25 тысяч северокорейцев заняты в российской дроновой индустрии, в том числе на предприятиях в особой экономической зоне «Алабуга» в Татарстане, где собирают беспилотники. Всего же северокорейские трудовы

Hedged or stated: the same figure turned from a ceiling into an approximation, with the source named in the headline — “В российском производстве дронов заняты около 25 тысяч северокорейцев — доклад”

Which measure was chosen: the same ceiling becomes a central estimate — “В российском производстве дронов заняты около 25 тысяч северокорейцев — доклад”

Read it at The Insider → https://theins.ru/news/297217

Checked, didn’t cover

M Meduza R RIA Novosti T The Moscow Times S Suspilne U Ukrainska Pravda I Interfax M Mediazona T TASS

Silence is recorded, not inferred — each of these was read when we built this story and carried nothing on this event.

We could not read these

U Ukrinform

These are must-cite outlets for this desk that we did not manage to read when we built this story. That is a gap in our reach, not a silence on their part, and it is not evidence of anything about this story.

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Novaya Gazeta Europe says "up to 25,000" North Koreans in Russia's drone plants; The Insider says "about 25,000"

What is being argued about

One estimate, three distances from it

Counted in dollars

Claims and verdicts

Who wrote it

Coverage, outlet by outlet