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A Cuban identified as Yoandi La Paz Lara, known on the front by the alias “Nadie,” was captured by Ukrainian forces near Kupiansk, in the Kharkiv province, after being sent to fight for the Russian army under the threat of deportation.
His testimony, shared by the media Euromaidan Press, starkly reveals how migratory insecurity and fear were weaponized to push him into a war he never chose.
She mentioned that she worked for seven months in Moscow under extreme conditions. She slept little, ate poorly, and sent almost all her money to her family in Cuba, which included her son, her wife, and her parents.
Her visa was only valid for three months and, once it expired, she became undocumented. From then on, she said, the constant harassment began.
"The police clean up the city every day. They tell you: either you give us money, or we deport you, or we send you to war," he recounted.
According to his account, he never signed a military contract. When he was arrested, he explicitly asked if the documents they showed him were for his deportation to Cuba. An immigration officer confirmed this to him. However, days later he was transported in a metal vehicle for hundreds of kilometers. He was not going back to the Island. He was going to the front.
"I didn't understand anything. I was supposed to be deported, but that was a lie. They were taking me to war," he said.
The Cuban was sent to Kupiansk around August and stayed there for about two months, even after being shot in the leg. Nonetheless, he stated that his superiors ordered him to advance.
He walked through the forest, injured, crossed a river in a small boat, and arrived at the front without ever having seen his documents, his salary, or any explanation.
“I saw people dying around me. I was scared. I cried because I didn’t understand why I had ended up in the war,” she confessed in the video cited by Euromaidan Press.
For weeks, he claimed, he barely had anything to eat. “For a month and a half, I only ate tomatoes.” Amid the fighting, he was shot at — he said even by Russian soldiers — and was hit by mortar fire. He managed to survive alongside an injured Ukrainian soldier, whom he helped seek refuge in the home of an elderly civilian woman.
“She gave me food, water, and let me sleep. She told me it didn’t matter that I was on the Russian side, that I was just a kid who needed help,” he recalled. “It’s the only good memory I have of this war.”
Finally, he was captured by Ukrainian forces while trying to evacuate the area. Authorities confirmed that he remains in custody and is being treated humanely.
The case of Johnni Dela is no exception. Euromaidan Press emphasizes that Russia has intensified the recruitment of foreigners to avoid an unpopular general mobilization, employing coercion, deceit, and economic vulnerability.
Cuba is among the countries most involved in this scheme with at least 1,028 Cubans identified as recruited, although estimates raise the number to several thousands.
For Dela, the fear did not end with the capture. She is afraid to return to Cuba.
"I am sure they can sentence me to 20 years in prison. Cuba and Russia are friends. I have no future," he said. He also expressed fear of possible retaliation against his family and described the Island as a country where "the police control everything."
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