Russia has recruited up to 15,000 Cubans to participate in the war against Ukraine.
The Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine confirmed the names of more than a thousand Cubans who signed a contract with the Russian military department.
About this Donbass Realities (Radio Liberty project) said the representative of the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine Andriy Chernyak. The real number of Cubans, he said, is much larger, informs the portal PromPolitInform.
“We don’t see Cuban mercenaries as some sort of separate military force that could affect the battlefield. In general, this figure can be about 10, 12, 15 thousand. This is a small number of people who were forced to sign a contract either by deception or by some other means,” says Andrei Chernyak.
The DIU believes that Russia considers Cuba as a zone of its geopolitical interests, so the recruitment of Cubans into the Russian army is used more for propaganda purposes, rather than military.
“They use it in the political arena, for the domestic consumer. They are trying to show that Russia is not an aggressor, but other countries, so to speak, of the civilized world also support Russia’s ideas and plans,” Chernyak adds.
Photo – collage of Radio Liberty
