- “We have identified 20,000 Cubans, 1,038 with names and contracts,” said Ukrainian military intelligence spokesman Andriy Yusov in an audience with U.S. congress members.
- The names of the 40 supposedly identified combat deaths are not provided, nor are the logistical details from the Island to the war front.
14ymedio, Madrid, 19 September 2025 — Giovani Gómez Basulto began working at the Camagüey geomining company in July 2023, but at the beginning of this September his eldest son announced his death, somewhere between Russia and Ukraine, according to the published images. Something must have happened in the meantime for Gómez Basulto to exchange his job in a relatively prosperous state-owned company for a rifle more than 9,000 kilometers away, and that something is probably the 2,000 euro salary promised by Putin that has led to the deaths of a number of Cubans that is difficult to quantify.
According to Andriy Yusov, a spokesman for Ukrainian military intelligence who appeared at a virtual hearing in the US Congress this Thursday, the death toll is “40 confirmed by name,” although the list has not been released. He also lacked concrete data on the 20,000 who, he said, are fighting on the Russian side against Ukraine, along with 250 whose contracts have expired but who remain in Russian units.
“We have identified at least 20,000 Cubans recruited by Russia. More than 1,000 have been verified by name and contract. Many of them died without their families receiving compensation,” he stated. The data would place the island as the largest supplier of foreign fighters in Putin’s camp, after North Korea, he maintained. However, and although it is unknown how many troops Pyongyang has sent to Moscow, Seoul has estimated two waves: one of 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 by name and contract. Many of them died without their families receiving compensation.”
The hearing, convened by Cuban-American Congressman Mario Díaz-Balart, also included the participation of his colleagues María Elvira Salazar and Carlos Giménez, as well as several Zelensky collaborators not named by Martí Noticias, which provided the information. Also participating was the secretary general of the Cuban Resistance Assembly, Orlando Gutiérrez Boronat, who was in Ukraine in 2023 and, since then, has been actively denouncing the alleged involvement of the Cuban government in sending combatants to Russia.
After that hearing, the Cuban Resistance Assembly revealed the name of a Cuban, Ernesto Míchel Pérez Alvelaes, 26, a native of Trinidad, recruited by Moscow and detained by the Ukrainian Armed Forces. The young man, reports Mario J. Pentón, joined the Russian army on August 1 with the promise of “reconstruction work,” when in fact he was sent to the front. He surrendered, the journalist continues, “after seeing 10 Cubans from his unit and dozens of Russians killed.”
In September 2023 , the regime announced that it had arrested several individuals linked to a network recruiting mercenaries to Russia and warned that they would be tried in a criminal case, of which nothing has been heard since. In July 2025, it was also learned that at least eleven soldiers from Matanzas had been arrested in early 2024 for the same reason, after allegedly being recruited by an officer. The authorities claim that they act in accordance with international treaties and that they firmly oppose such acts, which are punishable by up to 30 years in prison under the criminal code.
Most of the recruits who have spoken claim to have been seduced by the Russian offer and later regretted it, especially after realizing that beyond the logistical tasks used to attract them, they were sent to the front without the slightest consideration for their military experience, limited in the majority of these volunteers to military service performed on the Island.
However, Gutiérrez Boronat’s thesis, supported by other speakers this Thursday, is that in a state with such a high level of surveillance as Cuba’s, it is impossible for something like this to escape the government’s notice. If the regime doesn’t cooperate secretly—unlike Pyongyang, which has admitted it and is bound by a treaty—it at least turns a blind eye, Florida lawmakers maintain.
Among the testimonies documented yesterday were letters from relatives sent to Moscow asking for information about their loved ones who had disappeared at the front, the contract and passport of the supposedly first woman recruited, and the case of Yelena Smirnova, who admitted to having stolen the wages of between 300 and 400 Cubans in Russia and, after being detained in her country, gave the Russian authorities the names of some 6,000 or 7,000 Cubans who had expressed their willingness to be hired.
Another piece of information 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 the statistics have been established.
Another piece of information 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 the statistics have been established.
The chairman of the Ukrainian Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, Oleksandr Merezhko, who spoke at the event, said that Castroism is “Russia’s greatest arm in Latin America,” not only because of its fighters but also because of the pro-Russian propaganda it spreads and the money laundering it facilitates. “The Cuban regime must be recognized in Europe for what it is: a terrorist state,” he said.
Congressman Carlos Giménez warned at the hearing: “You’re either with Ukraine or against Ukraine. There’s no gray area.” However, Republicans have strongly opposed sending aid to Ukraine in the past, even putting the 2023 budget in jeopardy when this item had to be partially sacrificed to save the government from a last-minute shutdown. In recent months, their stance has softened and according to a survey published this summer by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, the number of Republicans who support continued financial support for Kyiv has risen from 41% to 51%.
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