Money, relocation to Russia and the granting of citizenship were promised by a Russian network recruiting Cuban citizens to fight in Ukraine.
Cuban authorities announced the evidence they gathered on the case at a press conference on Tuesday, in one of the rare cases in which Havana has clashed with one of its key allies, Russia.
The Russians seem to have cast their “nets” through the internet and more specifically through Facebook pages, where Cubans expressed their interest. The profit was not negligible: a monthly salary of 2,090 dollars and the promise that the volunteers themselves and their families would become Russian citizens.
Some testimonies from young Cubans already on Ukrainian soil say they were victims of fraud. According to the American newspaper America TeVe of Miami, two 19-year-olds posted a video a few days ago, in which they claim that they went to work as construction workers in Russia and found themselves, along with other foreign citizens, being promoted to a military unit in Ukraine.
The British intelligence services claim for their part that the Kremlin is implementing an extensive plan to recruit foreign citizens from Russia’s neighboring (mainly) countries, in order to meet the needs of the Russian Army in the war with Kiev.
