Russia recruits 20,000 Cubans to fight against Ukraine as casualties soar – World News – News

Russia has recruited around 20,000 Cuban citizens to act as mercenaries in its current war against Ukraine, according to Ukrainian intelligence officials.

Andriy Yusov, a representative of the military intelligence agency of Ukraine, told representatives of the American chamber on Wednesday during a national security briefing that Cuba is classified “at the top” among the countries from which Russia is obtaining its mercenaries.

“Currently, our good intelligence tells us about at least 20,000 people from Cuba who have already completed the documents and have been recruited to fight for Russia,” said Yusov, for one of his colleagues who translated his presentation for the Congress panel.

The evaluation of Yusov underlines the difficulties which Russia and Ukraine face to maintain the front lines of the battlefield with war in its fourth year. Moscow has turned more and more towards the assistance of foreign troops in the past year, regions such as North Korea, the Middle East and Africa, because it launches frequent but expensive ground attacks.

Yusov said that Ukraine had confirmed the identity of at least 1,038 Cuban mercenaries who signed contracts between June 2023 and February 2024.

However, he did not detail how Ukraine obtained this information, although officials later during the briefing suggested that many of these combatants were killed or captured.

The average age of Cuban fighters is 35 and their average monthly salary is $ 2,000, Yusov added.

“It is the age when people should build families and work hard, but unfortunately, they choose to wage war,” he told the panel.

The spokesman added that Ukrainian officials had at least 250 Cuban fighters who had remained on the front line even after the expiration of their contracts.

Yusov said the data show that the typical contractual foreigner who is killed during the fight against Russia responds to his death within 140 to 150 days.

“It is advantageous for the Putin regime to attract Cuban mercenaries,” said Yusov. “So, if a foreigner dies, there are no social payments and no responsibility. There are no parents in Russia who are not satisfied with the war.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin has promulgated several new laws since the start of the war in 2022 which coded payments for wounded soldiers and families of people killed during the war.

Although Russia does not publish official figures for the economic costs of these payments, independent analysts say they have probably exerted significant pressure on the Russian economy. Maryan Zablotskyy, a member of the Ukrainian Parliament who frequents the panel, presented documents that says in light about how Cuban mercenaries are treated, including a list of the names of the combatants, the ages, the date of their death and when they signed their contracts.

Another document presented by Zablotskyy, has shown an advocacy of a Cuban woman to a Russian mediator for the location and state of her husband, contracts for Cuban women and Russian judicial files of a local recruiter who testified that she had helped hire 6,000 to 7,000 Cubans.

“You can even see just by a confirmed recruiter how many thousands they promise to Russia, in terms of mercenaries,” said Zablotskyy.

The briefing on Wednesday, run by republican representatives in the south of Florida, aimed to put pressure on the international community to impose punitive measures on the Cuban government for its links with the Kremlin.