They have been given Russian citizenship, but they are not given the document

14ymedio, Madrid, 18 January 2025 / Seduced by a salary of 2,000 dollars per month, a flight from the Island and other benefits, many Cubans did not see the deadly trap that the Russian nationality promised by Vladimir Putin would become to foreigners who signed a contract to fight with his Army against Ukraine. The contract was initially for one year, and the Russian passport has made them citizens with all the rights but also all the obligations, which now means going to war.
“Now they tell us that, as we are Russian citizens, we have to continue fighting until the end of the war,” said Jorge, a pseudonym for a Cuban interviewed by the European edition of Politico. The media, which in September 2023 already published a report with the testimonies of several young Cubans who were hired as fighters for the invasion of Ukraine, has contacted some of them again. All have been stripped of their Cuban passports, and although some do not even have proof of having Russian nationality, the obligation is still there.
“They are using citizenship to capture us. It’s blackmail,” says another who is called “David.” Although his contract ended in July, since October 2023 he has not seen his Cuban passport, which is “safeguarded” by his superiors. He doesn’t have his Russian passport either, also held by his bosses with the argument that it was safer not to carry it with him when he was in Ukraine. At least he knows that it exists. Other Cubans have never seen the promised document, which from the Island seemed like a dream and now implies – in the words of the journalist – “a status that few native Russians would envy.”
Other Cubans have never seen the promised document, which from the Island seemed like a dream.
“They don’t want to let us go,” adds Manuel, who was one of the first Cubans to enlist and a year and a half later still has not seen his passport. To identify himself, he only has a military document.
“They don’t have any documents,” Ivan Chuviliayev, an activist who helps Russians desert from the front, explains to Politico. “The passports are in the possession of the Ministry of Defense. So they can’t just flee and appeal to their country’s embassy,” he says.
Dara Massicot, defense analyst at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and also consulted for the report, agrees. “Foreign fighters should know that if they sign a contract with the Russian Army or accept a passport from them, they are signing up to fight indefinitely in Ukraine until the Kremlin declares the end of the operation, or they die or are seriously injured,” she says.
Both also doubt that alerting Havana will help. The report considers two options: that the regime is aware of these recruitments and does nothing to prevent them (or even actively cooperates), or that it is against the sending of mercenaries, based on the arrest of 17 people in September 2023, about whose situation, by the way, nothing else has come out. In either of the two cases, they believe that the Cuban Government would not lift a finger for its compatriots, since it would mean confronting an ally essential for its survival.
Cubans are not the only ones who have taken Putin’s bait
Cubans are not the only ones who have taken Putin’s bait. Although there are no figures, Politico highlights that there are numerous fighters from different countries, including Nepal, Ghana, Syria, Sri Lanka and India. They say that India has pressured Russia to “recover” its citizens, while Cuba remains silent.
The media says that this serves Moscow’s geopolitical ambitions and admits that the Cubans interviewed alluded to economic reasons to explain their “free and voluntary” hiring. In addition, everyone believed that they would have low-skilled jobs that would not involve direct participation in the war. “In Cuba, they said they had struggled to make a living as teachers, carpenters, waiters and construction workers. A year of military service, they hoped, would allow them to acquire a new nationality and, with it, a new life.”
“If only I could have dug trenches,” David laments, his voice breaking. “Last year I did what I said I would never do, but it was killing or dying and I have four children to take care of.” The Cuban, in tears, told Politico that the extension of the time he had planned to spend in the Army is what is most undermining his morale. “I made a covenant with God for a year, and He protected me. But not for two or three years. I don’t wish anyone to wake up in the morning facing the choice between suicide or murder.”
Some recruits have been assigned to positions more in the rear guard than others, but all those interviewed by the media have been injured, fortunately not seriously. One of them – also diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder – has reported that when the wounds in his right hand were barely healed, his commander told him that he should learn to shoot with his left.
The report also dedicates a paragraph to those who do not return, because although the cases barely are mentioned on social networks or in independent media, they occur, and it is difficult to bring their remains back.
“In at least some cases, Cuban recruits simply seem to vanish into thin air “
“In at least some cases, Cuban recruits simply seem to vanish into thin air. Since neither Havana nor Moscow shows much interest in their fate, and they are off the radar of the human rights groups that help the mobilized Russians, Cuban relatives thousands of kilometers away are often forced to draw their own conclusions.” The article recalls the case of Denis Frank Pacheco Rubio, a recruit from Santa Clara, who possibly died in June, in Siversk (Donetsk), without his family having news.
“Cubans like me fear both Cuba and Russia,” admits David, who managed to flee months ago and lives in a secret place, without documents, waiting to be able to leave the country.
Deserters are exposed to serious sanctions, including death, and the text mentions the case of a recruit who spent six days in a well without food in retaliation, after a colleague escaped. Once the punishment was fulfilled, they let him go, but without a passport. Several days later, he stopped responding to messages. That was in mid-April, and the family hasn’t heard from him again.
Three of the four recruits interviewed by Politico, whose one-year contracts have ended, plan to remain where they are. “All I can do is wait,” one admitted, “and pray to God that one day they will allow me to leave this place. Like a free man.”
Translated by Regina Anavy
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