BBC investigations have revealed that Russia likely recruited Cuban nationals to fight in its army in Ukraine.
In September and October 2023, passport details of over 200 Cubans who allegedly joined the Russian army were leaked online by a pro-Ukrainian platform called InformNapalm.
According to the website, the passport details were obtained by hacking the emails of a Russian recruiting officer in Tula, south of Moscow.
A Facebook search found that 31 of the names mentioned in the Ukrainian leak matched accounts whose owners appear to live in Russia or are linked to the Russian army.
For example, some have posted photos of themselves in Russian military uniforms or in places with Russian street signs or Russian license plates. Others list Russia as their current place of residence.
Many of these Facebook users began posting Russia-related content in August 2023, indicating when they may have arrived in the country.
Since the beginning of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russia has suffered heavy losses on the battlefield. A BBC investigation confirmed the names of more than 50,000 Russian soldiers killed in Ukraine – but the actual number is likely to be much higher. Ukraine estimates the number of Russian soldiers killed or wounded in the war at 500,000.
Recruiting foreigners to replace some of the losses also helps the Kremlin avoid the risks associated with trying to mobilize Russians by force. When Russia declared partial mobilization in 2022, hundreds of thousands of men left the country.
Bringing Cubans to Russia is relatively easy. The two countries have been allies since the Cold War, Cubans do not need a visa to enter Russia and direct flights to Moscow make the trip easier.
Meanwhile, lucrative army contracts offered by Russia are luring Cuban men eager to escape the deepening economic crisis on the U.S.-sanctioned island.
Leaked documents and media reports online suggest 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 salary is under $35 (£28). lies.
The promise of Russian citizenship could also entice some Cubans.
Since the start of the war against Ukraine, Moscow has taken steps to make it much easier for foreigners to obtain Russian citizenship after spending time in the army, and the BBC has seen social media posts suggesting that Some Cuban fighters received Russian passports within a few months of registration.
A Russian passport allows visa-free travel to 117 destinations, while Cuban passport holders are limited to 61.
A local media outlet in the city of Ryazan, near Moscow, appeared to confirm this theory last year when it published photos of new Cuban recruits signing contracts with the Russian army.
The Cubans wanted to “help our country achieve the goals of the special military operation,” it said, adding that “some of them would like to become Russian citizens in the future.”
However, it is difficult to find a reliable estimate of the number of Cubans who joined the Russian ranks.
Ukraine’s diplomatic envoy to Latin America and the Caribbean, Ruslan Spirin, put the number at 400 in an interview with the Wall Street Journal.
A Cuban officer in Russia, Lázaro Gonzalez, told an exiled anti-government radio station that 90 Cubans served under his command.
According to him, they would probably be deployed in already occupied parts of eastern Ukraine rather than in frontline positions.
“While the Russian army is occupying areas in Ukraine, we Cubans are supporting the army in these cities and areas that are occupied, that’s all,” Mr. Gonzalez told the Miami-based radio station.
Numerous reports suggest that Cubans often joined the Russian army after coming into contact with recruiters on social media, but not all of them appeared to be aware of the true nature of the job on offer.
A popular Cuban YouTube content creator last year told the story of two 19-year-olds from Cuba who claimed they were offered construction jobs in Russia but were instead sent to the front lines in Ukraine.
Her case echoes the experiences of other foreigners who told the BBC they were lured to Russia with the promise of higher salaries – only to end up on the battlefield.
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For their part, the Cuban authorities have made contradictory statements about the involvement of their citizens in the Ukraine war.
After a flood of reports in September 2023 about Cubans fighting in Ukraine, authorities in Havana said they had arrested 17 people involved in their recruitment.
Shortly afterwards, however, the Cuban ambassador to Russia, Julio Antonio Garmendía Peña, said his government had nothing against Cubans who “simply wanted to sign a treaty and legally participate in this operation alongside the Russian army.”
Hours later, Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla said Havana was against “the involvement of Cuban citizens in any kind of conflict.”
Meanwhile, Ukrainian authorities said they had noted an increase in the number of foreign fighters joining Russian forces in recent months, as well as foreigners among soldiers captured on the battlefield by the Ukrainian army.
Petro Yatsenko, a spokesman for the Ukrainian Prisoners of War Agency, told the BBC that many of them come from low-income countries such as Cuba, India and Nepal, as well as African and Central Asian countries.
“Every week we take up to five people from abroad as prisoners of war at the front,” he said.
Their skills as fighters are low, he added, meaning their life expectancy on the battlefield is not even days but hours.