Ukraine official: Cubans are arriving in Russia. Are they workers or soldiers? | Opinion

Last year, Dannys Castillo, a 27-year-old from Cuba, traveled to Russia after being offered a job in construction. His family said Castillo was looking to escape the stagnation that has befallen the Caribbean island, with the economy suffering a double-digit fall as a result of the state monopoly of the economy.

So Castillo’s mother, Marilin Vinent, was astonished when photographs of her son in Russian military fatigues emerged on social media. She says Castillo was duped.

The bogus job offer was a carrot dangled to entice him over to Russia. In reality, her son had fallen prey to the close cooperation between the governments of Russia and Cuba.

Likely for show, the Cuban authorities announced last year they had arrested 17 people on suspicion of recruiting unwitting citizens to join its illegal war of aggression against Ukraine. However, confirmed reports from Cuba, including videos, show that some of these suspects have already been released, without charges and without trial.

The hundreds of Cuban troops sent to Ukraine, including confirmed reports of military officers as well as many with military backgrounds among them, are due directly to the close collaboration the Cuban government has with the shameful Russia, which invaded Ukraine two years ago.

At the United Nations, for example:

▪ On February 20, 2022, Cuba voted against the urgent need to debate the Russian invasion of Ukraine at the Security Council.

▪ In September 2022, Cuba voted against President Volodymyr Zelensky being able to address the General Assembly via video conference.

▪ In October 2022, Cuba abstained from voting to condemn the annexation of Russian territories by Russia.

▪ On Sept. 14, 2023, Julio Antonio Garmendia Peña, the Cuban ambassador to Moscow, stated that Cuba did not oppose Cubans legally participating in Putin’s “special military operation.”

These documented actions, as well as others, have clearly indicated the pro-Moscow bias in the invasion of Ukraine by the Cuban government.

No one who knows how tightly the Cuban police state is run would believe that hundreds of men could be moved to Russia without the regime noticing or participating in the undertaking.

Russia secretly recruiting and trafficking the citizens of one of its closest allies provides the latest evidence that its disastrous invasion of Ukraine is not going well. The Kremlin has forcibly conscripted hundreds of thousands of Russians to boost its depleted armed forces.

Cuban exiles, no matter where they are, might also recognize that the plight of Ukrainians living under the yoke of Russian repression has echoes of the experience of a Cuban civil society brutally suppressed by the Castro regimes.

Many of the repressive tactics used in Cuba — including surveillance, beatings and arbitrary detention — were imported from Soviet Russia and are still used by Moscow today.

It is likely that many Cubans and others in Latin American may not even be aware of such horrors. And I hope that doubters in Latin America begin to open their eyes.

I really want to believe that Latin American countries, whose proud and courageous nations also suffered from repression, will join the fight against lies and propaganda.

I urge Cubans on the island not to join this genocide effort against a peaceful people who have never brought harm to them.

Andriy Borysovych Yermak heads the office of the president of Ukraine.