The name of the first Cuban soldiers in the service of Russia was known in the. Andorf Antonio Velázquez García and Álex Rolando Vega Díaz, two 19 -year -old young people uniform, with the face and scared face, appeared in a video asking for help, after being hired from Cuba to perform supposed construction work. They said some promised them a salary of more than 2,000 dollars. They were going to guarantee a Russian passport. Without understanding how, they ended in the third line of war. “Everything has been a scam,” they said at that time. “We need to help us to get out of here.”
These statements had a strong impact on Cuba and fueled suspicions in a sector of society that the Government of Havana, silently, supporting its historical partner in the conflict. The General Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine released last May an estimate that places in 20,000 the number of Cubans mobilized since the beginning of the Russian invasion in 2022.
According to the data of Ukrainian intelligence – obtained from the analysis of foreign passports of mercenaries who signed contracts with the Russian army to those who had access – it would be Cuban intervention abroad on the largest exterior from the. Between 6,000 and 7,000 Cubans are today on the battlefield, according to the same sources, the second largest contingent after the more than 10,000 sent by North Korea. Ukraine estimates that between 200 and 300 Cubans have died in the war.
Some of the stories of deceased Cubans have spread on social networks: last year, for example, Raibel Palacio, 21, died after the attack of a Ukrainian drone; Yansiel Morejón, 26, formerboxer and teacher; or Michael Valido, 31, who hoped to return to the island soon. There are many more faces and names. There are others that have never had news. Today, for example, nothing is known about Andorf and Álex, if they returned home after one year contracts were fulfilled, or if they lost their lives on the battlefield. The country tried to communicate with their relatives, but has not obtained an answer.
Ukraine intelligence had already revealed in 2023 a list with 253 passports of recruited Cubans. Since then, they say, the figures have increased. The new report ensures that more than 1,000 between March and May arrived, of which they have already lost life 38.
“There is no doubt that the Cuba regime actively participates in the war against Ukraine, facilitating the active recruitment of mercenaries, as well as sending its own security troops,” Maryan Zablotsky, a member of the Ukrainian Legislative Assembly, who presented the report in the United States, told El País. According to this information, 40% of recruited Cubans are part of the government’s military apparatus. “The depth of their knowledge is indisputable. The rest are people who may or may not know what is coming,” says Zablotskyy.
The work of Ukraine intelligence with identity documents has thrown other data: the youngest Cuban to have gone to war was 18 years old and the older one, 62. The Middle Ages is 38 years and there are people from practically all the provinces of the country. “Cuban mercenaries are offered $ 2,500 per month,” estimates Zablotskyy. “Based on premiums to sign in Russia and other countries, the Cuban government can easily obtain 50,000 per mercenary.” For the testimonies of some soldiers, it is also known that there have been irregularities with the promised payments. “In all cases, those who sign contracts with the Russian army receive a bonus. As we know that sometimes they do not reach the recruits, it is very likely that the Cuban government is received,” adds the legislator.
A trip to war for “deception”
The names of Elena Shuvalova and Dayana became popular in Cuba a while ago. They ran from mouth to mouth among the desperate young people to get somewhere, it didn’t matter to which site. His WhatsApp contacts or social networks profiles, including the ads that they offered “packages” to travel to Russia, watered as gunpowder in the Cuban neighborhoods. According to several testimonies, these recruiting women offered Russian contracts that people signed without hardly understanding. For a one -year contract, they were guaranteed about 2,500 dollars per month, a Russian passport and the free trip.
Many flew to Moscow from the Varadero airport, in Matanzas, without a visa, since Russia is one of few countries that does not demand this process to the citizens of the island. A Cuban who has been living in that country for years, who prefers to hide his identity, told El País that the recruits are led to a military police station to sign the contract and, “when they receive the initial payment, they get the money they spent in the ticket.” “The contract with the Russian army is free, anyone can sign it, and if you are a foreigner you can apply to Russian citizenship after a year of service,” he says.
In the midst of the economic crisis that has promoted the greatest recent exodus in Cuba, this seems to have become an output option for those who did not have enough money to reach the United States or try their luck in another country. However, many of them have tried to have been deceived. “Everyone claim not to know the seriousness of the war once they face it,” says Zablotskyy. At first, they are told that they will go work as builders, workers or security agents.
This supposedly happened to Frank Dario Jarrosay Manfuga, a 36 -year -old musician and exprofesor in the city of Guantanamo, in the Cuban East. Last year he traveled to Russia with the aim of working on construction, and ended up enrolled in the Army. In March he was captured by the Ukrainians. In the prison where he remains he visited him twice Orlando Gutiérrez Boronat, general secretary of the Cuban Resistance Assembly (ARC), who has denounced the presence of Cubans in the war. Boronat told this newspaper that, on Frank’s first day at the Russian military training center in Ukraine, he saw four Cubans die before his eyes during an attack on Donetsk.
“I took the passage through the need, not for something else,” Frank told him during the interview. Today the Government of Havana does not accept it back, and that of Moscow does not recognize it as a mercenary. Frank, however, says he prefers to remain imprisoned before returning to the misery in which he lived on the island, according to Boronat.
“You don’t have to go to war and believe false promises”
In May of last year, he wished “successes” to Russian President Vladimir Putin in “The Special Military Operation” in Ukrainian territory. It was the confirmation of Havana’s support for Moscow from Moscow’s offensive in 2022. Havana should not be put into play of his historical ally, of the few who have helped him hold the depressed economy of the country in recent years. Between 2006 and 2019, Russia lent 2.3 billion dollars to Cuba. In 2014, Putin conded 90% of Cuban debt with Moscow, which amounted to $ 35,000 million. In the midst of those in the country, a Russian loan of 65 million to buy oil, and the donation of two million to fix the old plants of the electrical system. Other agreements allude to investments and stimulation of tourism.
“Russia has offered some kind of advantages to Cuba, but expects tangible benefits for them too,” says economist Ricardo Torres, former researcher at the Center for Studies of the Cuban economy and professor at the American University of Washington. “During the war, I believe that the Russians have appreciated the diplomatic support that Cuba has given them, in the UN and in other international forums. The question is whether relations between Russia and the United States improve substantially, and the war ends, which Cuba can offer loses value.”
Cuba, until now, has offered his silence, and his support overlapping in international scenarios. At the beginning of the invasion, however, he denied that he was sending mercenaries to Russia. After the many complaints to a traffic network from the island, the Government imprisoned 17 apparently involved people. A statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that “Cuba is not part of the war conflict in Ukraine,” and the government was responsible for transmitting that a crime for “mercenarism” could be charged with up to 30 years of deprivation of liberty. However, then it was learned that the Cuban authorities released the detainees.
Therefore, an extended thesis is that the recruitment of Cubans to go to war has the official complicity. “Of course, no recruitment of this type would have occurred without the explicit approval of the Cuban government,” says Zablotskyy, who last month denounced the situation in “there should be penalties to the regime for their actions. At least, I think it is reasonable that the European Union cancels the financing of the regime,” he says.
The Ukrainian also insists that the cost of going to war is too high for Cubans, who should think better before taking the step. “The mortality rate among Cubans is very high. The Russians do not participate later in prisoners with respect to Cubans,” he says. “The Cuban government also does not recognize the mercenaries and does not ask the return of the captured. And the Russians break their promises to let anyone go in a year. Any Cuban who signs the contract stays indefinitely until the Russians decide to let them go. You don’t have to go to war and believe false promises.”
