A recently published video on social networks confirmed once again the presence of Cuban mercenaries among Russian troops participating in the invasion of Ukraine.
Recorded in the front trenches, it shows a Russian combatant introducing his Cuban comrade-in-arms, who wears the uniform and helmet of that country's armed forces.
“Here we are, throwing away the last of the last to give [unintelligible, mixture of Spanish and Russian] to the Ukrainians, who are some to call ” [chickens, in Russian], said the young Cuban after the presentation of his Russian companion, who introduced him exclaiming: “Cuba!”
The video, made on January 25, was shared through the Ukrainian Telegram channel, Supernova+, and in the images you can see the snowy landscape in which the Cuban mercenary is deployed.
At the time of writing this note, the location of the Russian troops in which this Cuban is enrolled is unknown, as well as his identity, which was also not revealed.
At the end of October, a detailed article from the digital media Inform Napalm assured about 60 new Cuban mercenaries had arrived in Russian territory to sign a contract, three of whom were already on active duty as part of the military.
Hackers Ukrainians from the group Cyber Resistance They obtained and published the passport photographs of almost 60 more Cubans who had arrived in the Russian city of Tula between August 25 and September 29 to sign a contract.
The revelations, that have been happening since the end of August, once again exposed the Cuban regime that, after maintaining silence on the issue and offering contradictory statements, assured that it had dismantled a network supplying mercenaries to Russia.
After the dissemination of images and videos that demonstrated the presence of Cuban mercenaries in the Russian invasion of Ukraine, at the beginning of September, The Havana regime claimed to have detained 17 people related to their recruitment.
However, after the initial statements of Colonel César Rodríguez Rodríguez, head of department in the General Directorate of Criminal Investigation of the MININT, nothing more was known about these police actions, nor about the results of the investigation.
"We do not see any measures taken by the Cuban government to actually fight against mercenaries and attempts to bring participants to justice. The Cuban Government does not even block the channels of transferring funds to established mercenaries. There is also no evidence yet that Cuba has initiated criminal proceedings against already identified mercenaries," he observed. Inform Napalm in October.
This Tuesday, the media reported that The Cuban regime would have begun to release several of the 17 arrested citizens in September 2023. As revealed America Camel, two of the Cubans that sources identified among those detained in Santa Clara, were released.
The aforementioned media outlet announced the release of Yassiel Yera and Rafael Albares, two of the assistants arrested in September, who were dedicated to searching and contacting Cubans interested in traveling to Russia as mercenaries.
As explained then, these two people acted as intermediaries between Cubans who wanted to enlist in the Russian army and an organizer from that country who sent the data to Russia, from where they sent the tickets, free of charge, for the mercenaries to emigrate.
Among those recruited it was said that there were many with criminal records and antisocial behavior, but an official list was never released.
José Luis Reyes Blanco, Chief Prosecutor of the Directorate of Criminal Proceedings, said that these events could include crimes of "mercenarism", which contemplated serious sanctions that could reach up to 30 years of deprivation of liberty, perpetual deprivation of liberty and also the death penalty.
In addition to mercenarism, officials at the Attorney General's Office said they were considering possible charges that could include human trafficking and hostile acts in a foreign state.
The coming to light of what would be the release of Cubans from the recruitment network for that invasion on the island occurs at a time when Revelations continue about new Cuban mercenaries in Ukraine, and confirms the suspicions of Ukrainians and their allies that Cuba continues to surreptitiously send troops to the theater of operations.
"When the Cuban ambassador in Moscow said that his government was not opposed to the participation of its citizens in the war against Ukraine, probably was more frank than the Cuban Foreign Ministry, who was quick to refute this claim," said the digital media Inform Napalm in October.
For his part, during his stay in New York in October, the ruler Miguel Diaz-Canel he assured the newspaper The Nation that Cuba was not part of the conflict.
"We do not participate in the war in Ukraine, but we discovered through our investigations that an illegal network was hiring Cubans living in Russia and some living in Cuba to fight on the Russian side," he said.
At the same time he emphasized that "our Penal Code prohibits mercenaries, and we consider that this is a case of mercenarism, as well as human trafficking."
The new evidence of Cuban mercenaries in Ukraine comes to light shortly after the news of the mercenaries' deaths in combat became known in mid-January. Raibel Palacio Herrera (21 years) and Yansiel Morejon (26), both victims of human trafficking between Havana and Moscow.
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