The moment Francisco García stepped off the plane in Greece, he knew he had made the worst mistake of his life. Deceptive job offers in Cuba have been luring desperate citizens to move to Russia, only for them to be forced into fighting on the frontlines in Ukraine, as revealed by an investigative report. Hoping to escape poverty in his homeland, the 37-year-old was one of hundreds of Cubans on a flight from Havana to Moscow, enticed by online ads promising well-paid construction jobs repairing buildings damaged by Ukrainian bombings. In reality, these men were being drafted into the Russian military and sent to war.
García, a hospital porter in Cuba earning just 40 pesos per day for a grueling 12-hour shift, was shown an enticing Facebook ad by a friend offering a work visa, 204,000 rubles a month (around £1,900), and a Russian passport. Naively, he didn’t question its legitimacy. Within days, he said goodbye to his tearful parents and boarded a packed plane with a tourist visa, only to be met at Sheremetyevo International Airport by a Cuban in military uniform backed by Russian soldiers who ordered the men onto a convoy of military trucks.
They were taken to an abandoned sports school guarded by armed police, where they were given Russian-language contracts and forced under threats to enlist in the military. After minimal training, García was pushed to the front lines of the war without warning, describing the experience as deafening and traumatic. He survived a year in the trenches despite being wounded twice, eventually escaping through a smuggler and making his way to Greece, where he now lives homeless and unable to return home due to fears of legal repercussions as a mercenary.
Ukrainian intelligence reports indicate that over 20,000 Cubans have been recruited by Russia since the invasion began in February 2022, with nearly 7,000 currently deployed on the battlefield—many lacking proper training. The average age of recruits is 36, with some as young as 18 and as old as 62. Ukrainian officials describe many as expendable cannon fodder, dying within months of deployment.