The newest Facebook membership of many dudes whoever labels and you can photo match the brand new passports seen by time signify they rapidly ended up selling ramshackle houses and you will kept the girlfriends, spouses, and young children to depart for Russia. The fresh new recruits’ personal-media account underscore the new adversity of their stays in Cuba, having postings begging having medication and you may selling sets from mobile phone bits in order to rationed meat to your black market web sites. “Toward currency you’ll be able to pay me,” one Cuban guy said inside videos towards WhatsApp managed so you’re able to Russian employers, “in the event the I’m murdered or otherwise not, at the very least I am going to be able to help my loved ones.”
On the weeks one to then followed, a blast of Cuban recruits started initially to arrive in Tula, depending on the hacked files
“My father decided asiacharm Mobile to go to Angola,” you to definitely young man penned in the a long explanation of his decision, referencing Cuba’s deployment of greater than 50,000 “volunteers” to Angola and Ethiopia regarding 1975 so you’re able to 1991 to fight during the Soviet-backed conflicts. “All the my men ancestors was indeed in certain battle and i also wanted to follow along with them…I understand the concept of cannon fodder and that i usually do not worry.”
Towards July step 1, Russian airline Aeroflot first started working lead flights from the Cuban seashore city of Varadero so you can Moscow. “We now have 14 individuals during the options part,” Maj. Anton Valentinovich Perevozchikov, a beneficial Russian armed forces manager in town regarding Tula, composed into the a contact toward July 18. “Passport translations are urgently expected.” The fresh new circulate appeared to last for at the very least 1 month. “ten more individuals are coming to see me now,” brand new manager published with the Aug. 18. (Perevozchikov don’t address TIME’s request review.)
In the movies shared with Cuban news, recruits flick on their own from the an armed forces feet which have their thoughts shaven of the Russian troops
Such emails and you will attached documents have been into the Sept. 5 of the good Ukrainian activist hacker classification titled “Cyber Resistance UA,” with together with removed obligations into the current leaks away from hacked letters regarding Russian people in politics. “The latest Cuban bodies is trying in order to abdicate responsibility having delivering the customers so you’re able to battle up against Ukraine,” the hacker class penned on Telegram following the Cuban regulators produced the human being-trafficking allegation. “We’re going to ‘help’ the Cuban government to keep in mind the problem and you can publish the brand new passports out of 200 mercenaries.”
Go out was able to match at the very least 20 labels into the passports to personal-news profiles. A few of the photos are photographs of its Russian migration cards, and that condition the explanation for visiting the nation as “tourist.” All the arrivals seem to have flown into Sheremetyevo All over the world Airport during the Moscow, in which numerous said becoming welcomed from the Cuban soldiers. In one single photos viewed by time, previous arrivals pose for an excellent selfie from the airport with good other Cuban using an army consistent for the Russian banner spot, providing good thumbs-right up indication.
The brand new recruits did not cover up the methods, in general you are going to assume whenever they was section of a keen undercover scheme or “trafficking” process. Certain altered its Fb spot to “residing Moscow” and you will printed frequent photo with sites and military hardware. Six photo delivered to family members and seen because of the Day reveal Cuban recruits posing when you look at the barracks otherwise holding firearms. In one, Pedro Soto Hernandez, whoever passport identifies your since a great 59-year-old indigenous from Granma, presents for the an excellent Russian army consistent, flashing a peace sign into the caption “por los angeles madre patria.” (“Towards motherland.”) That recruit’s aunt advised Time she spoke to help you their nephew almost daily, which he had been nonetheless training in Russia.
However, following the recruits’ deployment to help you Ukraine, much of the fresh new interaction appeared to give it up, leading to mislead and regularly hopeless messages regarding friends and family home. “Now i need several where I am able to come to my buddy,” a woman named Yanisleydy Hernandez printed to the July 6. “The guy signed up throughout the [Russian] Military.” Numerous recruits told Cuban news one its mobile phones had been taken away because of the Russian pushes when they was in fact deployed, pointing out shelter issues about becoming imagined of the drones. Into the a great July 29 post released into the Cuban groups with the Fb, an unknown guy told you he was not able to arrive at their buddy for the Russia to tell your their cousin had passed away back. “Please, cubanos, don’t be deceived by the such incorrect claims,” the man blogged. “The problem in the Cuba is actually crappy, however, probably a war is not an excellent [better] choice.”
