The Ukrainian project 'I Want to Live' (Хочу Жить) recently shared a video in which a Cuban resident in the United States is seeking information about his brother, who went missing after joining the Russian army.
The recruit's name is Yoan Viondi Mendoza, and his story is not new: it has been documented for over a year by the independent outlet El Toque, which has followed his trail since he stopped communicating with his family in October 2024.
The testimony now circulating on social media is not a generic complaint. It is the public continuation of a search that began months ago and has already been documented in previous reports.
The last time Michael Duro spoke with his brother was on October 3, 2024, at 3:22 p.m. Kentucky time.
“I'm losing this damn connection,” were Yoan's last words before the WhatsApp call dropped, as reported by El Toque in February 2025. Since then, silence.
A documented recruitment
Yoan Viondi Mendoza left Cuba at the end of 2023. Like other young people from his neighborhood in Havana, he was approached by recruiters operating via WhatsApp.
Reuters and El Toque identified two of the main intermediaries: Dayana Díaz and Elena Shuvalova, who offered one-year contracts, salaries of 204,000 rubles per month (over 2,000 USD), promises of Russian citizenship, and guarantees that the Cubans would not be sent to the front lines.
Some audio recordings published by El Toque show how risks were minimized. “They will not go to the front line or the second. To the third, the fourth,” said one of the recruiters in leaked recordings.
According to Yoan's brother, he was only paid one or two times, and part of the money may have been withheld by the intermediary, who had access to the recruit's bank card.
The destination that Michael knew was the Donetsk oblast. But after October 3, 2024, there were no more updates.
The official confirmation came from Ukraine
In January 2026, the Telegram channel of 'Quiero Vivir' published the names of 54 Cubans who died in the Russian invasion. Added to the 39 announced in May 2025, the confirmed total rises to 93 deaths.
The name Yoan Viondi Mendoza appears on that list. According to data from Ukrainian intelligence, his body was identified on May 12, 2025. The family was not notified by Cuban or Russian authorities.
In parallel, another report from El Toque (“For Putin, the life of a Cuban is worth 5 million rubles,” February 2026) documented how other families in similar situations also did not receive direct official information. In one case, the family learned about the death through the publication of the media.
The Impossible Compensation
The contract that foreign recruits sign with the Russian army includes compensation in the event of death. According to media reports cited by El Toque, the amount reaches 5 million rubles (approximately 65,000 USD based on February 2026 exchange rates).
For a family in Cuba —where the minimum wage is about 5 USD per month in the formal market— that amount represents an enormous economic difference.
However, collecting it is practically unfeasible.
The Russian embassy in Havana informed the relatives of another deceased recruit that the procedure must be done in person in Russia or through a lawyer hired there, with a formal power of attorney. The Consulate clarified that it does not have lawyers or legal representation for that process.
The Cuban embassy, according to emails accessed by El Toque, expressed condolences and referred the matter to the Russian diplomatic mission. In response to further inquiries, it remained silent.
In the case of Yoan, there is no public evidence that any specific diplomatic mechanism has been activated to support the family.
An identifiable military structure
The collaboration between El Toque and the research unit 'Schemes' (Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty) led to the identification of another Cuban recruit in the 7th Independent Motorized Rifle Brigade, military unit number 40321, associated with the 3rd Combined Arms Army in Lugansk.
The brigade has been the subject of complaints on Russian social media platforms like Vkontakte, where relatives of soldiers report delays in payments and a lack of communication from the command.
That is to say, the military assignment data is not completely opaque. There are structures, identified commanders, and specific units. The information circulates in Russian and Ukrainian media. What does not exist is an institutional Cuban channel that centralizes this information and formally communicates it to the families.
The broader context
The anguish of Michael Duro is not exceptional. According to the Ukrainian project 'I Want to Find', there are over 50,000 soldiers from the Russian side classified as missing in action.
In 2024, Russian courts received more than 20,000 requests to declare individuals missing or deceased.
The video now released by 'Quiero Vivir' mentions the existence of "600 missing Cubans." This figure has not been officially confirmed, but it fits within a context where the category of "missing" operates as an administrative limbo in a conflict with high casualties.
An unresolved issue
The Cuban regime claims that those who traveled did so of their own accord and without state intervention. However, human rights activists have pointed out that there was at least some allowance for a sustained pattern of travel to a country at war.
The departure of hundreds of young people with legal passports to Russia was not clandestine. It required formal immigration procedures. Since September 2023, when Havana announced the dismantling of a recruitment network, no detailed reports or consolidated official figures have been published.
The case of Yoan Viondi Mendoza, now reactivated by the video released by 'Quiero Vivir', once again brings the discussion to the institutional level: What information does the Cuban state possess about its citizens who have died or gone missing on the Russian front? What diplomatic measures have been taken? Is there a public protocol for notification and assistance?
As long as those questions remain unanswered in documented form, each new testimony will continue to reveal the same gap: the names appear on foreign lists before they do in official statements from their own country.
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