North Korea will send 12,000 workers to Russian drone factories in Tatarstan by the end of the year, Ukraine announced on Friday, reporting that a sanctioned arms peddler is behind the deployment.

The North Koreans will work in Tatarstan’s Alabuga special economic zone, home to factories producing the Geran drones that Russia has used in swarm attacks on Ukrainian cities, the Defense Intelligence of Ukraine (DIU) said in a Telegram post.

The spy agency singled out the DPRK’s Jihyang Technology Trade Companyas the firm tasked with procuring the laborers. It alleged that the company’s representatives held a meeting with