The fresh Facebook profile many men whose names and you will images meets the latest passports seen by time imply that they quickly sold ramshackle homes and remaining the girlfriends, spouses, and you may toddlers to exit for Russia. The recruits’ public-news membership underscore the latest hardship of its lives in Cuba, which have posts begging for medication and you may promoting anything from cellular phone pieces so you can rationed beef towards black-market sites. “Toward currency you can shell out myself,” one to Cuban guy told you inside a video towards WhatsApp addressed in order to Russian employers, “when the I’m murdered or not, at the least I will be capable let my children.”
Regarding the days one then followed, a stream of Cuban recruits started initially to arrive in Tula, depending on the hacked documents
“Dad went along to Angola,” you to young buck composed for the a long need out of his decision, referencing Cuba’s implementation of greater than 50,000 “volunteers” to help you Angola and Ethiopia out of 1975 to 1991 to combat within the Soviet-supported conflicts. “The my male forefathers was indeed in some conflict and i need to adhere to them…I know the thought of cannon fodder and i also usually do not proper care.”
Toward July 1, Russian airline Aeroflot first started doing work direct aircraft regarding Cuban coastline city of Varadero so you can Moscow. “I actually have fourteen some one in the possibilities section,” Maj. Anton Valentinovich Perevozchikov, a good Russian military officer around out-of Tula, published into the an email to the July 18. “Passport translations are urgently called for.” The brand new move seemed to continue for at the very least a month. “ten more folks are on their way to see me now,” the new officer wrote towards Aug. 18. (Perevozchikov did not respond to TIME’s request remark.)
From inside the video clips shared with Cuban mass media, recruits movie on their own in the a military ft that have its heads shaved by Russian troops
This type of emails and you can attached data files was basically with the Sept. 5 of the a great Ukrainian activist hacker group entitled “Cyber Resistance UA,” with and additionally removed duty with the latest leakage out-of hacked emails from Russian politicians. “The latest Cuban bodies is wanting so you can abdicate duty for giving the citizens to war up against Ukraine,” the fresh new hacker category had written with the Telegram pursuing the Cuban government produced the human being-trafficking allegation. “We will ‘help’ the latest Cuban authorities to consider the issue and you will publish the latest passports out-of 2 hundred mercenaries.”
Big date managed to matches about 20 brands for the passports so you’re able to societal-media users. A few of the photos were pictures of their Russian migration notes, which condition the cause of going to the nation as “tourism.” All of the arrivals seem to have flown towards the Sheremetyevo In the world Airport inside Moscow, in which multiple stated becoming welcomed from the Cuban troops. In a single pictures seen by time, current arrivals pose for a great selfie in the airport with a beneficial fellow Cuban using a military uniform towards the Russian flag spot, offering a great thumbs-up sign.
The fresh new recruits failed to mask its strategies, overall might assume whenever they were section of an undercover system or “trafficking” process. Some altered their Myspace spot to “staying in Moscow” and you may published repeated photos which have attractions and you can military hardware. Half a dozen pictures delivered to family members and seen by Date tell you Cuban recruits posing into the barracks or carrying firearms. In one single, Pedro Soto Hernandez, whose passport relates to your because the an excellent 59-year-dated indigenous from Granma, presents into the a good Russian army consistent, blinking a relaxation sign to the caption “por los angeles madre patria.” (“With the motherland.”) That recruit’s sis advised Go out she spoke to help you her nephew nearly each day, which he was however learning Russia.
But after the recruits’ implementation to Ukraine, most of the fresh telecommunications did actually give it up, ultimately causing baffled and often hopeless texts away from friends back. “I wanted lots where I could visited my buddy,” a female titled Yanisleydy Hernandez released into July six. “He signed up about [Russian] Armed forces.” Several recruits informed Cuban mass media you to definitely its cell phones was in fact recinded by the Russian forces when they was implemented, pointing out shelter concerns about becoming thought of from the drones. During the an effective July 31 post released from inside the Cuban organizations to the Facebook, a private man said he had been incapable of visited his buddy inside Russia to tell your his sister got died back. “Excite, cubanos, don’t let yourself be deceived because of the such incorrect promises,” the guy blogged. “The challenge in Cuba try crappy, but likely to a battle is not good [better] Marokanski Еѕene koje datiraju option.”