Tens of thousands of Cuban mercenaries being recruited to fight for Putin in Ukraine, says Kyiv
Tens of thousands of Cuban mercenaries are being recruited to fight for the Russian army in Ukraine, according to Kyiv’s military intelligence agency.
Andriy Yusov, a representative of the intelligence agency, said that at least 20,000 Cuban citizens had travelled to Russia to join the war against Ukraine.
The agency said it had uncovered details of both men and women signing contracts with the Russian military, adding that Cuba is “at the very top” of the list of countries supplying foreign mercenaries to Russia.
Mr Yusov told US House representatives in a national security briefing that the Cuban mercenaries are being “attracted by fraud”, and then held against their will and unable to leave after their contract expires.
“The main factor why Cubans go and fight with Russia against Ukraine is the payouts,” he told the virtual briefing. “The average monthly salary for Cuban mercenaries in Russia is $2,000 (£1,500) per month.
“It’s not a significant amount of money, but for the impoverished people of Cuba, this is a significant [amount].”
Mr Yusov described a grim survival outlook for the Cuban soldiers, whose average age on signing these contracts, he said, is 35. “This is the age when people should be building families and working hard, but unfortunately they choose to go for war,” he said. “Unfortunately, this is the age when young Cuban men die for the imperialist ambitions of Vladimir Putin.”
Data on the outcomes for mercenary soldiers can be hard to come by, especially because most are placed in so-called “meat-grinder” units in respect of which no formal records are kept. However, based on the available data, authorities said the average time for which a foreign fighter can expect to survive is between four and five months.
Time in combat is also often short, he said, with the majority of foreigners held in Ukrainian captivity having surrendered during their first combat mission.
Mr Yusov said there are a number of reasons why Russia is recruiting Cubans by the thousands: “It is beneficial for Putin’s regime to attract Cuban mercenaries,” he told the panel. “If a foreigner dies, there are no social payouts and no responsibility; there are no relatives inside Russia who are unhappy with the war; and of course, fewer dead Russians.”
He said it also supports a “propaganda myth” that there is “global support” for Putin’s war. “It’s much cheaper to attract a Cuban mercenary than a Russian soldier,” he added.
But despite the meagre $2,000 per month wage in exchange for putting their life on the line, Mr Yusov described how many Cubans are lured in by “fraud” and left unable to escape their contract later.
Slides shown to the panel explained how the language barrier between the two countries means that soldiers are often unable to understand the documents they are signing. They also struggle to comprehend instructions during military training, or on the battlefield, and have difficulty communicating with other soldiers – all of which, he said, contributes to a lack of informed consent on the part of the mercenaries.
He said that only 39 Cubans had been confirmed as having been killed during the war, but that “simple extrapolation” shows that this is only a fraction of the “hundreds” killed – most of whom, he said, had been marked as missing in action.
