The men's passports were taken away and they were sent to miserable conditions in frontline trenches. Vega says: "Many Cubans got sick because water was limited. You could only drink water once a day. There was very little food and you had to eat it very quickly."
Full-scale invasion and national resilience, broadcasted live.
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Young Cubans lured to Russia for military service
In a video published on a popular Cuban YouTube channel in August, two 19-year-olds, Andorf Velázquez and Alex Vega, said that they had been lured to Russia for construction jobs, but were brought to an army training camp and told to sign a military contract.
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Cuban soldiers abused in Ukraine in 2024
By April 2024, reports emerged of beatings, mistreatment, and unpaid wages. The Ukrainian resistance group Atesh claims that Cuban soldiers from the 428th Motor Rifle Regiment, stationed in Donetsk, killed their own commander after being subjected to abuse.
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Reluctant soldier’s account of forced Ukraine deployment
32/ One man, Yoan, says: "It was: ‘You signed [the contract], now you’re off.’ They put us on a bus and said they’d give us three months of training, which was a lie. Before we knew it, we were in Ukraine, on the frontlines of combat."
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Cubans joining Russian fight: trap for money and citizenship
23/ The Cubans were generally people of low social status and from large families. Not all had come in 2023 – some had already been living in Russia, but were evidently willing to sign up to fight in exchange for money and citizenship. This, however, was a trap.
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Ukrainian hacktivists expose Russian recruitment of Cubans
In October 2023, Ukrainian hacktivists revealed evidence that the Russian army has been closely involved in recruiting Cubans. They hacked the email account of Major Anton Valentinovich Perevozchikov, the head of military recruitment in the Russian city of Tula.
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Russian Regiment Recruits Cubans After Heavy Losses
Major Perevozchikov's 51st Guards Airborne Regiment sustained heavy losses in the early stages of the war in Ukraine. It appears to have begun recruiting foreigners to replenish its ranks, as Perevozchikov's emails detail 199 Cuban recruits aged between 18 and 69.
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Pressure and violence to force combat
10/ "And if you refused – they beat you." Dario says they were starved of food until they agreed to fight. "All this time they were pressuring us. They said we had to go to the battlefield, take up arms, we had to shoot. Because the Ukrainians would come and kill us."
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Russians flee, Dario surrenders at front
When they eventually reached the front line in early March 2024, the Russians accompanying them fled when they came under fire. Dario stayed and surrendered. Another man, Miguel from Santa Clara, signed a contract supposedly to repair war-damaged infrastructure.
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Migrants refuse military equipment
Instead, they gave us helmets and military equipment. We refused. We started to rebel—we don’t want this. We didn’t come here for that. We don’t want to shoot. I never had military training; I don’t know how to use weapons. They insisted that we had to do it.