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By Sean Rayment
Thousands of Cuban mercenaries are being recruited to fight for the Russian army in Ukraine, Kyiv’s military intelligence agency has revealed.
Andriy Yusov, an official within Ukraine’s Main Directorate of Intelligence, said that at least 20,000 Cuban citizens had travelled to Russia to join the war against Ukraine.
The agency said it had uncovered evidence of both men and women signing contracts with the Russian military, adding that Cuba is “at the very top” of the list of countries supplying foreign mercenaries to Russia.
The use of Cuban fighters follows reports that Russia has also recruited troops from North Korea, China, and several African countries amid mounting Russian casualties.
An estimated 1,000 Russian soldiers are being killed or wounded every day in Ukraine, with Russia’s total casualty figure now believed to exceed one million.
One intelligence source told National Security News: “The fact that Russia is now asking friendly countries to supply troops to fight in Ukraine comes as no surprise. Russia is running out of young men to fight in this pointless war and the cost is greater than anything Europe has witnessed since the Second World War.”
Mr Yusov told US House representatives during a national security briefing that Cuban mercenaries are often “attracted by fraud”, before being held against their will and prevented from leaving once their contracts expire.
“The main factor why Cubans go and fight with Russia against Ukraine is the payouts,” he said. “The average monthly salary for Cuban mercenaries in Russia is $2,000 (£1,500). It’s not a significant amount of money, but for the impoverished people of Cuba, it is considerable.”
He described a grim outlook for Cuban soldiers, noting that the average age of recruits is 35.
“This is the age when people should be building families and working hard,” he added. “Instead, they are choosing war. Unfortunately, this is the age when young Cuban men die for the imperialist ambitions of Vladimir Putin.”
Data on the outcomes for mercenary soldiers is difficult to verify, especially as many are placed in so-called “meat-grinder” units where no formal records are kept. Based on available intelligence, however, foreign fighters are estimated to survive only four to five months on average.
Combat experience is often short-lived, with the majority of captured foreigners reportedly surrendering during their first mission.
Mr Yusov outlined several reasons why Russia is recruiting Cubans by the thousands: “It is beneficial for Putin’s regime to attract Cuban mercenaries. If a foreigner dies, there are no social payouts and no responsibility; there are no relatives inside Russia who are unhappy with the war; and, of course, there are fewer dead Russians. It also supports a propaganda myth that there is global support for Putin’s war. And it’s much cheaper to attract a Cuban mercenary than a Russian soldier.”
Despite the $2,000 monthly wage, Yusov stressed that many Cubans are lured in by “fraud” and left unable to escape their contracts.
Slides shown to the panel highlighted how the language barrier means recruits often do not understand the documents they sign. Many also struggle to follow instructions during training or on the battlefield, leading to what Yusov described as a lack of informed consent.
He said that only 39 Cubans had been confirmed killed so far, but that “simple extrapolation” suggests the real figure is in the hundreds, with most officially listed as missing in action.
One Cuban woman, whose husband disappeared in January 2025, wrote to Russia’s human rights ombudsman seeking information. “She says she has a young child and is desperately searching for her husband,” Yusov said. “The tragedy is that the Russian government will not pay her anything, and neither will the Cuban government, because he is missing in action, not formally dead. Even if he is found, she will not receive any compensation.”
He added that Russia has also begun signing up Cuban women, showing a contract obtained by Ukrainian intelligence as evidence of the first confirmed female recruit.
Further documents obtained by Ukrainian agencies suggest that Cuban mercenaries are being held in captivity beyond the end of their contracts. One man, Julio Concepción Ayala, stationed in Feodosia in Crimea, wrote to Russia’s human rights council complaining that he had been fighting from January 2024 to January 2025 without his promised annual leave and had not been paid in December 2024.
Yusov said Ayala had asked to be released and paid but was still being held by force in Crimea.
Earlier this year, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky claimed that more than 150 Chinese mercenaries recruited by Putin were fighting in Ukraine. He accused the Kremlin of using social media to enlist Chinese citizens, but Chinese officials dismissed the allegations as “totally unfounded.”