Cuba uncovers the use of Cubans as human shields by Russia in Ukraine
HAVANA, Sept. 4 – Cuba’s foreign ministry announced on Monday that authorities were seeking to “neutralize and dismantle” a human trafficking ring that had forced its people to fight for Russia in the conflict in Ukraine.
Few details were provided in the announcement from Cuba’s foreign ministry, but it did mention that the trafficking network operated both in Russia and on the Caribbean island nation, thousands of miles away from Moscow.
The statement from the Cuban government stated that the “Ministry of the Interior” was working to “neutralize and dismantle a human trafficking network that operates from Russia to incorporate Cuban citizens living there, and even some from Cuba, into the military forces participating in war operations in Ukraine.”
The charges have received no response from the Russian government.
Russia announced a plan to increase the number of its armed forces by more than 30% to 1.5 million combat men last year. This ambitious aim was made more difficult by the country’s significant but as of yet unknown war deaths.
A Russian publication in Ryazan, Russia, stated in late May that some Cuban people had accepted contracts with the Russian military and had been transported to Ukraine in exchange for Russian citizenship.
If the Ryazan report was related to the Cuban foreign ministry statement was not immediately evident.
Cuba’s government, however, said that legal action had already been taken in cases where its people had been forced to fight in Ukraine.
The Monday statement stated that “attempts of this nature have been neutralized and criminal proceedings have been initiated against people involved in these activities.”