Ukrainian intelligence officials told Congress on Wednesday that Russia has recruited at least 20,000 Cuban citizens to fight as mercenaries.
Andriy Yusov, a representative for Ukraine’s military intelligence agency, or HUR, told US House representatives in a national security briefing that Cuba is ranked “at the very top” among countries from which Russia sources its mercenaries.
“Currently, our good intelligence tells us about at least 20,000 people from Cuba that have already filled the documents and have been recruited to fight for Russia,” Yusov said, per one of his colleagues who translated his presentation for the congressional panel.
His assessment underscores the challenges that both Russia and Ukraine face in keeping their front lines staffed as the war drags into its fourth year. Moscow has increasingly turned to foreign troops from areas such as North Korea, the Middle East, and Africa as it launches frequent but costly ground assaults.
Yusov said that Ukraine has confirmed the identities of at least 1,038 Cuban mercenaries who signed contracts between June 2023 and February 2024.
He did not detail how HUR obtained this information, though Ukrainian officials later at the briefing implied that many of these fighters were killed or captured.
The average age of the Cuban fighters is 35, and their average monthly wage is $2,000, Yusov added.
“This is the age where people should be building families and working hard, but unfortunately, they choose to go for war,” he told the panel.
The spokesman said that Ukraine also had records showing that at least 250 Cuban fighters had remained on the front lines even after their contracts expired.
Yusov said HUR’s information on the mercenaries’ survivability isn’t complete, but added that current data shows the typical contracted foreigner who is killed while fighting for Russia meets their death within 140 to 150 days.
“It is beneficial for Putin’s regime to attract Cuban mercenaries,” Yusov said. “So if a foreigner dies, there are no social payouts and no responsibility. There are no relatives inside Russia who are unhappy with the war.”
Russian leader Vladimir Putin has enacted several new laws since 2022 that codify payouts for wounded soldiers and families of those killed in the war. While the Kremlin doesn’t officially publish data on these expenses, independent analysts say they’re likely placing a significant strain on Russia’s economy.
Maryan Zablotskyy, a Ukrainian parliament member attending the panel, also displayed several documents that he said shed insight into how Cuban mercenaries are being treated, including a list of fighters’ names, ages, the date of their death, and when they signed their contracts.
Another document showed a plea from a Cuban woman to a Russian ombudsman for the location of her husband, contracts for Cuban women, and Russian judicial records of a local recruiter who testified that she helped to hire 6,000 to 7,000 Cuban people.
“You can even see just from one confirmed recruiter how many in thousands they are promising to Russia, in terms of mercenaries,” Zablotskyy said.
The briefing on Wednesday, held by Republican representatives for southern Florida, aimed to pressure the international community to impose punitive measures on the Cuban government for its ties to the Kremlin.
Both US representatives and Ukrainian officials accused Cuba’s government of at least implicitly supporting Russia’s war effort due to the number of Cuban citizens joining Moscow’s ranks.
Cuba’s foreign ministry said in 2023 that it had launched proceedings against a group that it accused of trafficking its citizens to recruit them for the war.
However, researchers who study the country closely told Business Insider that year that it’s unlikely a large mercenary ring could have operated in Cuba without the government’s knowledge.
The Cuban and Russian foreign ministries did not respond to requests for comment sent outside regular business hours.
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