The fresh Fb account many dudes whose labels and photographs fits the fresh passports seen by time indicate that they easily offered ramshackle households and you can leftover its girlfriends, wives, and you may toddlers to depart to possess Russia. The fresh new recruits’ personal-media levels emphasize the new difficulty of their stays in Cuba, with postings begging to have medication and you will promoting from cell phone bits in order to rationed meat to the black market sites. “Towards money you can spend me,” you to definitely Cuban man said inside the videos toward WhatsApp managed to help you Russian employers, “in the event the I’m slain or otherwise not, about I am going to be capable help my family.”
Regarding weeks that accompanied, a stream of Cuban recruits started to get to Tula, depending on the hacked documents
“Dad went to Angola,” you to definitely young buck typed inside the an extended need off his decision, referencing Cuba’s implementation greater than fifty,000 “volunteers” so you’re able to Angola and you may Ethiopia out of 1975 in order to 1991 to combat in Soviet-supported wars. “All of the my male ancestors was in some conflict and i also wanted to follow along with them…I understand the concept of cannon fodder and that i try not to worry.”
Into July 1, Russian flight Aeroflot first started functioning direct routes about Cuban coastline city of Varadero to Moscow. “I have 14 people in the selection point,” Maj. Anton Valentinovich Perevozchikov, a beneficial Russian military manager in the city away from Tula, published from inside the a contact on July 18. “Passport translations is actually urgently expected.” The newest move seemed to last for at the least 30 days. “10 more individuals are on their way observe me personally today,” the latest manager authored for the Aug. 18. (Perevozchikov did not answer TIME’s request for feedback.)
Within the movies distributed to Cuban news, recruits motion picture on their own within an armed forces foot with its minds shaven from the Russian troops
These types of letters and attached files was basically to the Sept. 5 because of the a great Ukrainian activist hacker class called “Cyber Resistance UA,” that has along with pulled duty for the latest leakage from hacked letters out-of Russian political figures. “The latest Cuban government is attempting to abdicate duty to have delivering their citizens so you can war facing Ukraine,” the new hacker classification authored for the Telegram following the https://kissbrides.com/hr/blog/flert-emoji/ Cuban authorities generated the human-trafficking allegation. “We will ‘help’ the newest Cuban authorities to consider the issue and you may upload the new passports of 2 hundred mercenaries.”
Day were able to matches no less than 20 brands into passports in order to societal-news profiles. A number of the photo are images of their Russian migration notes, and that county the reason behind going to the country while the “tourism.” All arrivals appear to have flown to your Sheremetyevo International Airport in the Moscow, where numerous claimed becoming welcomed from the Cuban troops. In one photo seen by time, current arrivals pose having a selfie within airport which have a good fellow Cuban wear a military consistent into the Russian flag patch, offering an excellent thumbs-up signal.
The new recruits failed to cover up their strategies, in general might anticipate once they was indeed element of an undercover program otherwise “trafficking” procedure. Specific changed the Fb location to “residing in Moscow” and you can printed frequent photos that have attractions and you will army methods. Half a dozen pictures taken to family and seen by the Date show Cuban recruits posing inside barracks otherwise holding guns. In a single, Pedro Soto Hernandez, whoever passport describes him given that a beneficial 59-year-old local out of Granma, presents inside a great Russian army uniform, blinking a rest signal on caption “por la madre patria.” (“Into the motherland.”) That recruit’s aunt told Day she talked so you’re able to her nephew nearly everyday, hence he was still learning Russia.
However, following recruits’ implementation in order to Ukraine, the majority of new interaction seemed to cease, leading to puzzled and sometimes hopeless messages off friends and family back. “I want several where I will reach my brother,” a female titled Yanisleydy Hernandez printed toward July 6. “He enrolled on the [Russian] Military.” Multiple recruits informed Cuban mass media one their mobile phones was in fact taken away of the Russian pushes after they was indeed implemented, pointing out safeguards concerns about being thought of from the drones. For the a beneficial July 31 post circulated inside the Cuban groups with the Myspace, a private man said he was incapable of reach his friend in the Russia to share with your his cousin had died back home. “Delight, cubanos, don’t let yourself be misled because of the this type of untrue promises,” the guy blogged. “The situation during the Cuba is actually crappy, however, likely to a war isn’t a [better] option.”