Up to 15,000 mercenaries from Cuba have been recruited into the russian army – MID

The Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine confirmed the names of more than a thousand Cubans who signed contracts with the russian military. This was reported by the MID representative Andrii Cherniak, according to Radio Svoboda.

According to him, the real number of Cubans is significantly higher.

“We do not consider Cuban mercenaries as any kind of separate military force that can influence the battlefield. In general, this number may be around 10, 12, 15 thousand. This is a small number of people who were forced to sign contracts either through deception or by other means”, - Andrii Cherniak says.

The MID believes that russia views Cuba as a zone of its geopolitical interests, therefore the recruitment of Cubans into the russian army is used more for propaganda purposes rather than military ones. “They use this in the political arena, for a domestic audience. They are trying to show that russia is not an aggressor, and that other countries, so to speak, of the civilized world also support russia’s ideas and plans”, - Cherniak adds.