In this way, the Russian Federation is trying to cover the losses of the Russian Army at the front.
Russia most likely recruited Cuban citizens to participate in the fighting in Ukraine. This is stated in a BBC study.
It is known that in September and October 2023, the InformNapalm platform published online the passport data of more than 200 Cubans who allegedly joined the Russian army. The information was obtained by hacking the email account of a Russian military registration and enlistment office officer in Tula, south of Moscow, the website reported.
“A search on Facebook showed that 31 of the names mentioned in the Ukrainian leak matched accounts whose owners were located in Russia or associated with the Russian army. Some of them, for example, published photos of themselves in Russian military uniforms or in places with Russian road signs or Russian license plates. Others indicate Russia as their current place of residence,” the material says.
The publication emphasized that recruiting foreigners to cover Russian losses helps the Kremlin avoid the risks associated with attempts at forced mobilization among Russians. When the Russian Federation announced partial mobilization in 2022, hundreds of thousands of men decided to leave the country.
At the same time, it is relatively easy for Russia to recruit Cubans, since the two countries have been allies since the Cold War. It is known that citizens of Cuba do not need a visa to travel to the Russian Federation, and there are also direct flights to Moscow, which make travel easier.
In turn, Russia is offering Cuban men lucrative military contracts, which are attracting them as they try to get out of an economic crisis that is getting worse. Cuba is also under US sanctions.
“Leaked documents and media reports indicate that Cuban men are being offered monthly payments in the region of $2,000 (£1,600) a month – a huge sum for Cuba, where the average monthly wage is less than $25 (£20). Russian promise citizenship may also tempt some Cubans,” the BBC added.
Journalists recalled that since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russia has been taking actions that make it much easier for foreigners to obtain Russian citizenship after serving in the army. The BBC has also seen reports on social media that some Cuban soldiers have received Russian passports several months after they enlisted.
It is known that thanks to a Russian passport you can travel without visas to 117 countries, while Cuban citizens are limited to 61 countries.
“Local media in the Moscow region of Ryazan confirmed that Cubans were joining the Russian army. The Cubans wanted to “help our country achieve the goals of a special military operation,” the publication reported, adding that “some of them would like to become Russian citizens in the future.” But to find A verified estimate of the number of Cubans who joined the Russian ranks is difficult,” the publication noted.
At the same time, the diplomatic representative of Ukraine in Latin America and the Caribbean, Ruslan Spirin, in an interview with the Wall Street Journal, said that this figure is 400 people. However, one of the Cuban officers in Russia, Lazaro Gonzalez, noted for an anti-government radio station in exile that 90 Cubans serve under his command.
He added that they would likely be deployed in already occupied parts of eastern Ukraine rather than on the front lines.
“Since the Russian army occupies territories in Ukraine, we Cubans support the army in those cities and areas that are occupied, that’s all,” Mr. Gonzalez said in an interview with a radio station located in Miami.
The publication also told how last year a famous Cuban blogger told the story of two 19-year-old Cuban citizens who claimed that they were offered construction work in the Russian Federation, but were instead sent to the front line in Ukraine.
This case shows the experience of other foreigners who told the BBC that they were lured to the Russian Federation with promises of higher salaries, but they ended up at the front. At the same time, the Cuban authorities made contradictory statements regarding the participation of their citizens in the war in Ukraine.
“After a flurry of reports in September 2023 about Cubans fighting in Ukraine, Havana authorities said they had arrested 17 people involved in their recruitment. However, shortly after that, Cuban Ambassador to Russia Julio Antonio Garmendia Peña said that his government has nothing against Cubans who want “to simply sign a contract and legally take part in this operation on the side of the Russian army,” the BBC noted.
However, just a few hours later, Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla said that Havana opposes “the participation of Cuban citizens in any conflicts.”
In turn, Ukraine reported that in recent months the number of foreign fighters has increased, as well as the number of foreigners among the military that the Ukrainian Armed Forces captured at the front.
A spokesman for the Ukrainian prisoner of war agency, Petr Yatsenko, told the BBC that many of these fighters come from low-income countries, namely Cuba, India, Nepal, as well as countries in Africa and Central Asia.
“Every week we capture up to five prisoners of war from other countries on the front line,” he assured.
According to him, their skills were low, so this meant that their life expectancy at the front was not days, but hours.
Russia is recruiting foreigners and prisoners for the war in Ukraine: latest news
As UNIAN wrote, the occupiers who were recruited in the prisons of the Russian Ministry of Defense are dying in the war in Ukraine at a faster rate than the prisoners who fought as part of the Wagner PMC. Journalists from the BBC Russian service examined more than 9 thousand messages confirming the death of these Russian prisoners.
“We identified a group of 1,040 people from almost 9 thousand dead prisoners, for whom both the start date of the contract and the date of death were known. We gleaned this information from published obituaries and messages from relatives. 540 people from our sample were “Wagnerites,” and the remaining 500 fought in the Storm units,” the journalists said.
It was also reported that the Russian Federation is selling Syrian refugees to the war in Ukraine. Russia is helped in this by intermediaries who transported refugees to Europe through Russia and Belarus.
“Syrian and Russian telegram channels are distributing videos with natives of Egypt, Syria, Somalia and India in military uniform, as well as photos and videos of Russian passports that are issued to them. All Syrian passports were issued in Yakutia,” the Russian publication noted in its investigation “New Newspaper”.
