The Ukrainian Center for Countering Disinformation placed Cuba among the ten countries with the highest number of citizens recruited by Russia since 2022.
MADRID, Spain.- The Ukrainian Center for Countering Disinformation (CCD) denounced that Russia has recruited at least 18,000 foreign citizens from 128 countries, including more than a thousand Cubans, since 2022 to send them to the conflict against Ukraine. According to the organization, this process is supported by deception, coercion and economic promises directed at vulnerable people, through an international network that combines fraudulent structures with official channels of the Russian State.
According to the CCD, since 2022 Moscow has used “fraudulent recruitment centers, private companies and government channels through its diplomatic and cultural institutions” to recruit foreign fighters. The organization maintains that Russian authorities have built “a transnational system of recruiting foreigners using deception and criminal schemes,” in which citizens from multiple regions of the world have been involved, from Asia to Africa. Many of them, the entity added, “have been killed or taken captive” after being sent to the front.
The most recent figures published by the CCD indicate that the largest group comes from North Korea, with some 12,000 recruited. They are followed by Uzbekistan (2,715), Tajikistan (1,599), Kazakhstan (1,190) and Belarus (1,338). Cuba also appears on the list of the ten most affected countries, with 1,028 citizens identified in the Russian ranks.
The CCD highlighted that “hundreds and thousands of citizens from different countries have been deceived, coerced or dragged into the aggression for money,” and the infographic released by the organization shows the countries that concentrate the largest number of recruits since the beginning of the invasion.
Fake offers, minimal training and deadly destinations
The information available reveals that a large part of those recruited accepted false job offers, without knowing that they would be sent to combat zones. Once in Russia, most received just two weeks of training before being transferred to the most dangerous fronts, where the estimated life expectancy is between 140 and 150 days.
Starting in mid-2025, Moscow intensified these campaigns. According to the data cited, one in three military contract announcements was aimed at foreigners, especially from Central Asia, Africa, South Asia and the Middle East.
Cubans captured through social networks and deceptive contracts
In Cuba, recruitment is carried out mainly through social networks, WhatsApp and Telegram, where supposed job offers in Russia for construction or service activities circulate. These posts promise salaries of up to $2,000 a month, as well as accommodation and visas. In contrast, the average salary on the island is around $17 per month, making these proposals a significant attraction for many.
Once in Russian territory, numerous Cubans signed contracts written in a language they do not speak, which left them without knowledge of the real conditions of their relationship. This exposes them to cases of forced detention, inability to return, and direct sending to combat zones.
Although the Cuban government denies having any involvement in this process, various reports indicate that the authorities facilitated flights and logistics for the transfer of those recruited.
Higher estimates and warnings in international spaces
The recruitment of Cubans and other nationals has been a topic of debate in different forums. In September, During a national security briefing chaired by U.S. Congressman Mario Díaz-Balart, advisors to the Ukrainian government estimated that the total number of Cubans recruited could reach 20,000. At that meeting, officials such as Vladyslav Vlasyuk confirmed the identification of more than a thousand combatants and pointed out cases of expired contracts without release, non-payments, forced retention and criminal proceedings against Russian recruiters. According to their data, those recruited have an average age of 35 years and die “between 140 and 150 days after signing the contract.”
Oleksandr Merezhko, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Ukrainian Parliament, placed this phenomenon within an alliance of authoritarian regimes, and noted that those who support Russia should be considered complicit in war crimes. In Julythe European Parliament approved a resolution in which it denounced the participation of Cuban citizens in the Russian offensive.
Complaints from the Cuban opposition in exile
The issue was also addressed in June at a briefing in the United States Senate. The Assembly of the Cuban Resistance (ARC), through its coordinator Orlando Gutiérrez-Boronat, assured that the Cuban contingent constitutes the second largest international group at the service of Moscow, only behind North Korea. A month earlier, the ARC had released figures attributed to Ukrainian military intelligence that placed between 6,000 and 7,000 Cubans present in Russian territory bound for the front.
In November, the ARC presented in Miami the conclusions of Gutiérrez-Boronat’s trip to Ukraine, where he met with three Cubans captured while fighting for Russia. According to the opponent, the prisoners receive “respectful treatment” and expressed their desire to send peace of mind to their families. Gutiérrez-Boronat affirmed that there are indications that Cuban intelligence supervises the recruitment process and maintained that the regime receives payments from Moscow for each combatant, within the framework of military cooperation that has been maintained for decades.
