Cubans lured to Russian army by high pay and passports
By Vitaly Shevchenko
Russia has likely been recruiting Cuban nationals to fight in its army in Ukraine, research by the BBC has shown.
In September and October 2023, passport details belonging to over 200 Cubans who allegedly joined the Russian army were leaked online by a pro-Ukrainian platform called InformNapalm.
The passport details were obtained, the site said, by hacking the emails of a Russian military recruitment officer in Tula, south of Moscow.
A Facebook search has shown that 31 of the names mentioned in the Ukrainian leak match accounts whose owners appear to be in Russia or linked to the Russian army.
Some, for instance, have posted photos of themselves wearing Russian military uniform, or in locations that bear Russian street signs or Russian number plates. Others list Russia as their current place of residence.
Many of those Facebook users started posting Russia-related content in August 2023, indicating when they might have arrived in the country.
Since launching 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 troops killed in Ukraine – but the real number is likely to be much higher. Ukraine’s own estimate puts 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 posed by trying to mobilise Russians by force. When Russia declared a partial mobilisation in 2022, hundreds of thousands of men left the country.
