The Cubans were recruited by an army officer to fight with Russia in the war in Ukraine.
14ymedio, Pablo Padilla Cruz. Matanzas, 23 July 2025 — On May 12, 2025, Eduardo was released after spending a year and four months in Combinado del Sur, a maximum-security prison in Cuba’s Matanzas province. His crime: having purchased a ticket to Russia for February 2024 from the same agency and on the same flight as a group of 11 people currently being prosecuted in total secrecy for the crime of mercenarism
All those detained are being investigated for their alleged intention to participate as soldiers in the service of the Russian Army in the war against Ukraine. In Cuba, mercenarism is a serious crime, punishable by up to 30 years in prison under the Penal Code. Although the government has officially denied its involvement in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, it has also acknowledged—ambiguously—the existence of recruitment networks to send Cuban combatants to the war front.
Eduardo denied knowing anyone involved, but they didn’t believe him, and he ended up in a cell with three members of the group that was about to travel to Russia. Among those arrested was a former member of the Ministry of the Interior, originally from Bayamo but living in Havana. His name is Amaury. He trained as a sniper at the military school and had worked as a driver in Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR) units.
Another detainee, known as Tasé, is from Baracoa and was part of an alleged mixed martial arts team.
Another detainee, known as Tasé, is from Baracoa and was part of a supposed mixed martial arts team. He was traveling, according to his version, to participate in a “cultural exchange” in Russia, an alibi repeated in similar cases.
All of the detainees, except Eduardo, had some connection to the Cuban Armed Forces or the Cuban state security apparatus. Several possessed military titles, combat skills, or specialized training. One of them, arrested after confessing that war was “a possibility,” became a key player in the case. Although the investigation has not revealed formal employment contracts, accounts point to an informal recruitment network operating under the command of an officer nicknamed “El Maestro.”
Identified as a FAR officer, El Maestro was known for leading a paramilitary martial arts team. At least one of those implicated was a member of that group. According to sources close to the case, he is identified as the operational center of the network, managing flights, connections, procedures, and contacts. Although he is not incarcerated with the other detainees, his trial is being conducted in parallel from the Canaleta prison in Jovellanos, Matanzas—not to be confused with the prison of the same name in Ciego de Ávila. This separation has fueled the theory that his isolation is a control strategy: to prevent leaks between defendants or preserve hierarchies within the prison system.
“The Maestro had everything squared with the Russians,” says one of those involved.
According to one of the detainees at Combinado del Sur, whose comments reached 14ymedio through a relative, there is a suspicion that El Maestro was sacrificed as a scapegoat to calm the waters and disprove any state involvement when the scandal broke regarding the involvement of Cubans sent to the war broke. There is also the hypothesis that the recruiter acted independently. “El Maestro had everything arranged with the Russians,” comments one of those involved.
Some testimonies from those who did reach the battlefields demonstrate the effects left on them by the war. Francisco García, a 37-year-old Cuban, says his “life ended” when he discovered that the promised job—repairing buildings in exchange for a Russian passport and $2,594 a month—was nothing more than a lie to turn him into a mercenary. After witnessing the deaths of dozens of Cuban and Russian soldiers, subjected to psychological violence to act as a “robot on the battlefield,” he deserted in October 2024. García paid nearly $13,000 to a trafficker to flee to Greece and now lives on the streets of Athens, without help, lamenting the price of having survived a war that “has nothing to do with him.”
There is also the case of three young men from Matanzas who were arrested months ago on the Russian-Finnish border. They were trying to leave Russia when they were detained by immigration police and taken to a detention center where they were pressured to sign a military contract. The Cuban Embassy, they reported, never intervened. Only thanks to the their story going viral—through a video sent to their families and shared on social media—were they able to return to Cuba.
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