Ukraine warns of the high number of Cubans fighting with Russian troops

 The Ukrainian body that deals with prisoners of war warned this Friday of the high number of Cubans fighting with Russian troops in the war in Ukraine, and reproached the Havana authorities for their tolerance. in the face of Russian recruitment operations on the island.

“We see photographs, videos from the Russian side where many mercenaries from Cuba are seen,” said the press chief of the Ukrainian Committee for the Treatment of Prisoners of War, Petro Yatsenko, in a press conference held in Kiev, who warned of the growing number of mercenaries from countries of the so-called Global South recruited by Russia.

Asked by EFE about the Cuban Government's position regarding Russia's actions to attract Cuban citizens to the ranks of its Army, Yatsenko declared that Ukraine has no evidence of Havana's official participation in this type of efforts.

“We cannot affirm that it is a (Cuban) state program, but we know that no one (in Cuba) opposes it,” declared the Ukrainian official, who also said that “Russian agitators” work without restrictions in Cuba. .

Yatsenko made these statements at a press conference in which eight prisoners of war from Nepal, Somalia, Sierra Leone and Cuba captured by Ukrainian troops while fighting with Russian forces also participated.

The Cuban prisoner of war, a 35-year-old teacher and musician from Guantánamo who goes by the name Darío Jarrosay, said he was lured to Russia by a false offer for the construction sector that he saw on Facebook and then was dragged into combat. with the Russian Army at the front.

The other prisoners of war reported having been victims of deception to be recruited by the Russian Army.

By making these testimonies public, Ukraine is trying to prevent other citizens of low-income countries from accepting jobs in Russia or positions in the Army that would lead them to kill Ukrainians or be captured or die on the front, as Yatsenko explained.

According to the Ukrainian official, Russia recruits more and more mercenaries from countries in Africa, Asia and, to a lesser extent, Latin America, to make up for the casualties in its ranks. Ukraine has been open to negotiating the delivery of these captured fighters to their countries.