invasion of Ukraine

A group of Cubans who were allegedly tricked into joining the Russian army fighting in Ukraine reported having been scammed by Vladimir Putin’s government, which has expelled them to the streets without the documents they were originally promised.

According to the independent media The touch, These Cubans are now stranded on the streets of Moscow, without papers and without the money they were promised for their services.

Seven of these Cubans shared their complaints with the aforementioned media, pointing out that after being recruited through deception to fight in Ukrainian territory, they were defrauded by those people who got them their contracts.

Through several audios sent to the media, the Cubans assured that they had been promised a good salary and other immigration benefits such as Russian nationality, however, now they were abandoned and must sleep on the streets and bus terminals.

According to the information shared, at least seven of these Cubans were recruited by two women identified as Elena Shuvalova and Dayana David Díaz, who promised them to receive Russian passports and other benefits in exchange for joining the army.

Once in Europe, they were sent to the battlefront, but their salaries were never full.

“They have the advantage that they speak Russian. We do not. “They ask us for more money and for us to return to war,” said one of those affected.

“They did not pay us our full salary nor did they give us a (Russian) passport. We are illegal. “They scammed us, they threaten us,” said one of the complainants, pointing out that they never received the legal documents that supported their stay in Russia.

According to the aforementioned media, Cubans run the risk of being deported or imprisoned if they do not return to the front, but they do not want to fight or return to the Greater Antilles.

The independent media recalled that the presence of Cubans on the battle front was made known in May 2023, when several complaints of Antilleans tricked into taking part in the conflict began to become visible.

On that occasion, the Castro authorities claimed to have no knowledge of the situation, a response that generated discontent among citizens, who consider that it is impossible for the regime, in charge of managing every aspect of the lives of its citizens, I didn’t know anything about these numerous trips to Russia.

The government claimed to have put an end to an alleged human trafficking network that was dedicated to recruiting Cubans for the invasion of Ukraine, however, complaints from people who claim to have been scammed into joining the battlefront continue to be shared to this day.

🇨🇺🇷🇺 #Cubans recruited under false promises to fight in #Ukraine —on the Russian side—they denounce deceptions and abuses.

Expelled and without documents, they face a lack of legal and economic protection, while living in uncertainty and vulnerability in #Russia.

We reveal… pic.twitter.com/PHVraLPb62

— The Touch (@eltoquecom) May 2, 2024

A Cuban who is on the front lines of the Russian invasion of Ukraine denounced that several of his compatriots, who were tricked into being recruited by Vladimir Putin’s forces, have lost their lives in this conflict.

According to the video, initially shared by influencer Alain Paparazzi Cubano, citizens have been scammed into joining this fight, which has cost them their lives. Additionally, he maintains that the Kremlin government is not honoring its side of the deal, so they are not receiving the money they were promised when signing their contracts.

“This is a message for all Cuban soldiers who are here in Ukraine. I’ve been here in the war for a while now and I’m going to tell you that they are scamming us of all our money. They are not paying us. “Many of my friends have died in combat and they don’t really pay us,” denounced the man, with his face covered.

The man stressed that one of the main incentives for joining the conflict in Ukraine (Russian nationality) was not being delivered.

“Many of my friends died on the front lines without documents. They don’t want to give us the documents, they are scamming us of our money. The sacrifice we are here for. They really aren’t doing things right. They continue to scam us, they continue to deceive us. “We keep dying,” he added.

The man urged other Cubans who are also on the front to hand over their weapons, because they were only being used and that was not worth it.

“For all my Cuban colleagues who are in combat like me, do not let them continue to deceive you. Don’t take up arms, do things well and we will continue doing things well. “Do not lose your life in vain.”

The man refers to the construction jobs for which Cubans are hiredthe most common excuse used when recruiting them.

“Keep doing your job, but hand over your weapons. I mean by doing your job, staying where you are, but don’t take up your weapons. Hand over your weapons, we are really dying and no one is being paid what was promised. The decision is up to each person, but I prefer that they send me to Moscow and not lose my life and that my family not receive any money,” the Cuban concluded.

The Castro government would be using Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) to recruit young Cubans and send them to the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

This new modus operandi was denounced by the influencer Darwin Santana, through one of his latest videos.

The YouTuber points out that MSMEs contact these young people and offer jobs related to construction in Havana, but after a while, they offer them better payments to do “the same thing” in Russia.

The influencer shared the story of José Luis Leiva Reyes, a young man who agreed to travel to Russia with the promise of better payment for his work.

Upon his arrival, he was assigned to a brigade that built houses in Ukrainian cities taken over by the Russians. However, one day he was given a military uniform and was sent to a “meeting,” which is what they call the first contact with the battle line.

The video included audios sent by the relatives of the 19-year-old young man, who acknowledged that they fear for the life of Leiva Reyes. They also revealed that a cousin identified as Luis Leiva Meriño traveled with the young man, who died during an ambush.

According to the story shared by the family, they learned that the incident occurred on a Sunday morning, when the young man’s group was ambushed on the front line of battle. The rest of the members of his group barely managed to take refuge, suffering continuous attacks for several hours.

The includer points out that the Cuban government’s response has not been sufficient, and that, according to reports shared online, although senior officials are investigated for human trafficking, the measures to stop these actions have not been effective, generating accusations of great complicity on the part of the State.

Experts believe that, if the use of MSMEs for the deceptive recruitment of young Cubans in Russia can be proven, this would generate a scandal that could affect the diplomatic relations of the Island.

For now, the families of Cubans who have been tricked into taking part in the conflict, and they have died because of thiscontinue to demand justice and answers from the Castro authorities.

A high-level Ukrainian official accused the Castro regime of being behind the sending of Cuban soldiers to Russia for recruitment, something that the island’s government has denied for months.

According to an opinion article written by Andriy Borisovich Yermak, head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, the presence of the Antilleans in the war that began on February 24, 2022 is due to the support that the Island gives to Russia.

“The hundreds of Cuban troops sent to Ukraine, including confirmed reports from military officials and many of them with military backgrounds, are the direct result of the close collaboration that the Cuban government has provided to the shameful Russian invasion of Ukraine,” the official indicated. .

These accusations were evidenced in the statements given by a Cuban soldier who was recently captured in Ukraineidentified as Frank Darío Jarrosay Manfugas, who was part of the Russian army during an attack in the Marinka area, Donetsk region.

After his arrest, the Ukrainians interrogated the young man, who revealed that he was contacted by his compatriots in Russia, who offered him a monthly salary of 250,000 rubles and Russian nationality in exchange for performing “masonry services” for Vladimir Putin’s army.

This contact asked him for a photograph and passport, this as part of a procedure to recruit him. After that, they sent him the one-way ticket and instructions for it to be picked up at the Russian airport.

The soldier, originally from Guantánamo, said he was unpleasantly surprised when he realized that, instead of carrying out the promised tasks, he was going to be sent to the battlefront.

On one of his missions, Dario ended up getting separated from his group and was found by Ukrainian forces, who took him into custody and interrogated him.

The case was analyzed in the A Fondo program, América TeVéwhere experts indicated that this type of operation to recruit Cuban citizens could only be possible with the cooperation of the Castro regime.

Likewise, they indicated that the soldier’s statements revealed that there were two types of Cuban soldiers on the front, those with prior training, and others who lack that knowledge.

“They put military uniforms on them, they give them a weapon and they are using them as cannon fodder in a war that has trenches and front lines of thousands of kilometers. But there is another component, a force that was in the Angolan war, that even has degrees of greater, they are the heart of that Cuban force and they are the ones that are most actively involved in other functions,” explained university professor Orlando Gutiérrez Boranat.

“For me, the most important thing about this testimony is that it demonstrates the structure that has sought him out and brought him to Russia, a structure that is obviously facilitated and prepared by the Castro regime,” he added later.