The Fb profile of several guys whoever brands and you can photo match the passports viewed by time imply that it quickly sold ramshackle households and you may kept their girlfriends, spouses, and toddlers to go away having Russia. The latest recruits’ public-media membership emphasize new hardship of its resides in Cuba, that have posts begging for treatments and attempting to sell anything from mobile parts so you’re able to rationed meat for the black-market internet. “To the currency you’ll be able to spend myself,” that Cuban people told you in videos for the WhatsApp managed so you’re able to Russian recruiters, “when the I’m slain or not, about I am going to be capable help my family.”
Throughout the weeks that adopted, a blast of Cuban recruits started to arrive in Tula, according to the hacked data
“Dad visited Angola,” one son composed when you look at the a long factor of his decision, referencing Cuba’s implementation greater than 50,000 “volunteers” so you’re able to Angola and you may Ethiopia away from kissbrides.com DoД‘ite do web stranice 1975 so you’re able to 1991 to combat when you look at the Soviet-supported battles. “All of the my personal men forefathers was in some battle and i also want to check out all of them…I am aware the concept of canon fodder and that i cannot proper care.”
To the July step 1, Russian trip Aeroflot first started operating head routes on the Cuban seashore town of Varadero to help you Moscow. “We have 14 individuals at the options section,” Maj. Anton Valentinovich Perevozchikov, an effective Russian armed forces officer around out of Tula, blogged into the a message toward July 18. “Passport translations is urgently requisite.” New move seemed to last for at the least a month. “10 more folks are on their way observe me personally today,” the fresh officer authored on the Aug. 18. (Perevozchikov didn’t answer TIME’s obtain comment.)
In clips shared with Cuban news, recruits film by themselves from the a military base with the brains shaved by the Russian troops
These types of letters and you can attached files was in fact on the Sept. 5 from the a Ukrainian activist hacker class named “Cyber Resistance UA,” with including drawn obligation toward previous leaks away from hacked emails regarding Russian political figures. “Brand new Cuban regulators is attempting so you’re able to abdicate duty getting giving their people to war against Ukraine,” the new hacker group wrote to your Telegram after the Cuban government produced the human-trafficking allegation. “We’ll ‘help’ the latest Cuban authorities to consider the issue and upload the new passports of two hundred mercenaries.”
Big date been able to matches no less than 20 names into the passports in order to personal-mass media pages. Some of the photo were pictures of their Russian migration cards, and therefore condition the explanation for visiting the nation once the “tourism.” Most of the arrivals seem to have flown into the Sheremetyevo All over the world Airport from inside the Moscow, in which several reported are greeted because of the Cuban soldiers. In one photo seen by-time, current arrivals pose to possess an excellent selfie at airport which have an excellent fellow Cuban putting on a military uniform on the Russian flag spot, providing an excellent thumbs-right up signal.
Brand new recruits don’t cover-up the methods, in general you will assume if they was indeed part of a keen undercover scheme or “trafficking” operation. Some changed its Myspace destination to “staying in Moscow” and you will published frequent photo with attractions and you can armed forces technology. Six photos provided for family members and you can seen by Time show Cuban recruits posing inside the barracks otherwise holding firearms. In one, Pedro Soto Hernandez, whose passport means him as the a great 59-year-old native away from Granma, presents inside the a Russian armed forces consistent, blinking a peace sign toward caption “por la madre patria.” (“Towards motherland.”) You to recruit’s sibling told Go out she spoke so you can their own nephew nearly everyday, which he was nonetheless training in Russia.
But pursuing the recruits’ deployment to Ukraine, most of the fresh communication did actually quit, leading to confused and sometimes eager messages regarding friends and family back. “I wanted several in which I will arrive at my brother,” a woman titled Yanisleydy Hernandez posted to the July six. “He enlisted on the [Russian] Army.” Several recruits informed Cuban mass media you to their mobile phones was removed because of the Russian forces when they was implemented, citing safety issues about are perceived from the drones. Inside the an effective July 30 blog post released into the Cuban groups for the Twitter, an unknown guy said he had been incapable of arrived at their friend in Russia to inform your his cousin got died home. “Excite, cubanos, you shouldn’t be fooled of the these incorrect pledges,” the man authored. “The difficulty when you look at the Cuba try crappy, but likely to a conflict isn’t a [better] option.”