Madrid/Giovani Gómez Basulto He started working In the Geominera de Camagüey company in July 2023, but at the beginning of this September its eldest son gave the news of his deathsomewhere between Russia and Ukraine, as can be seen from the published images. Something had to happen in the Interín so that Gómez Basulto changed his employment in a relatively prosperous state for a rifle to more than 9,000 kilometers and probably that something is the 2,000 euros of salary promised by Putin that have led to death to a number of Cubans hardly quantifiable.
According to Andriy Yusov, spokesman for the Ukrainian military intelligence and appearing this Thursday at a virtual audience in the US Congress, the number of deaths amounts to “40 confirmed by name”, although the list has not been delivered. Nor are there concrete data of the 20,000 that, he said, fight on the Russian side against Ukraine, to which 250 are joined with defeated contracts but follow in Russian units.
“We have identified at least 20,000 Cubans recruited by Russia. More than 1,000 have been verified with name and contract. Many of them died without their families receiving compensation,” he said. The data would place the island as the largest supplier of foreign combatants to the Putin side, after North Korea, he said. However, and although it is not known how many troops Pyongyang sent to Moscow, Seoul has calculated two bar 10,000 soldiers to Kursk in 2024 and another of 6,000 more this spring.
“We have identified at least 20,000 Cubans recruited by Russia. More than 1,000 have been verified with name and contract. Many of them died without their families receiving compensation”
The Hearing, convened by Cuban American congressman Mario Díaz-Balart, also had the participation of his colleagues María Elvira Salazar and Carlos Giménez, in addition to several collaborators of Zelenski not cited by Martí News, that gave the information. The Secretary General of the Cuban Resistance Assembly, Orlando Gutiérrez Boronat, also participated, which was in 2023 in Ukraine and, since then, carried out an intense task of denunciation of the alleged participation of the Cuban government in the sending of combatants to Russia.
The regime announced in September 2023 Having arrested several people linked to a mercenary collection network bound for Russia and warned that they would be judged in a criminal process that has been known since then. In July 2025, in addition, it was learned that at least Eleven Military of Matanzas They had been arrested in early 2024 for the same reason, after being allegedly recruited by an officer. The authorities claim that they act in accordance with international treaties and that they are firmly against these acts, punished with up to 30 years in the Criminal Code.
The majority of recruits who have spoken argue have been seduced by the Russian offer and repent laterespecially after verifying that beyond the logistics tasks with which they were attracted, they were sent to the front without the slightest consideration around their military experience, limited in most of these volunteers to the military service carried out on the island.
However, the thesis of Gutiérrez Boronat, endorsed by other appearing this Thursday, is that in a state with a level of surveillance as high as that of Cuba, it is impossible for something like that to escape in the eyes of the government. If the regime does not cooperate under rope – in reverse that Pyongyang, who has admitted it and is linked by a treaty – at least turns a blind eye, says Florida legislators.
Among the testimonies that were documented yesterday, were the letters of relatives sent to Moscow asking for their disappeared loved ones in the front, the contract and passport of the supposedly first recruited woman, and the case of Yelena Smarnova, who admitted to having stolen in Russia the salaries of between 300 and 400 Cubans and, after being stop 6,000 or 7,000 who were willing to fight.
Another of the data that came to light this Thursday is that the death of Cubans usually occurs between 140 and 150 days after signing the contract, while some only survive a week, although it is unknown how statistics have been established
Another of the data that came to light this Thursday is that the death of Cubans usually occurs between 140 and 150 days after signing the contract, while some only survive a week, although it is unknown how statistics have been established.
The president of the Foreign Commission of the Ukrainian Parliament, Oleksandr Merezhko, who intervened in the act, said that Castroism is “Russia’s major arm in Latin America”, not only for its combatants but also because of the prorous propaganda that diffuses and the money laundering that favors. “The Cuban regime must be recognized in Europe as what it is: a terrorist state,” he said
Congressman Carlos Giménez, warned at the audience: “You are with Ukraine or against Ukraine. There is no gray zone.” However, Republicans have firmly opposed to the sending of help to Ukraine in the past, getting to check the budgets in 2023, when this chapter had to be partially sacrificed to save, in extremisthe closure of government. In recent months, the position has gone softening And, according to a survey published this summer by the Chicago Council on Global Affairsthe number of Republicans who are in favor of continuing to support kyiv from 41% to 51%.
