Human trafficking

Cuba exposes Russian human trafficking ring for military recruitment

Traffickers target Cuban citizens to recruit them for Moscow’s war against Ukraine.

BY LAURA HÜLSEMANN

The Cuban government has exposed a Russian trafficking operation used to lure Cubans into the war against Ukraine, Cuban authorities announced Monday.

“The Ministry of the Interior has detected and is working to neutralize and dismantle a human trafficking network operating from Russia to incorporate Cuban citizens living there, and even some from Cuba, into the military forces participating in war operations in Ukraine,” the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Monday.

The authorities are taking legal actions against the traffickers, Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez said on X (formerly Twitter) on Tuesday.

Cuba condemned the recruitment racket, underlining that the country is “not part of the war conflict in Ukraine,” and that it does not want to look “complicit in these actions.”

Russia and Cuba share a history of communism and have historically been allies. In July, Cuba came under fire for allegedly taking orders from Russia, after the country vehemently opposed certain wording condemning Russia in a joint EU-Latin American statement on Moscow’s aggression in Ukraine.

The Kremlin has been scrambling for new military recruits, raising the military draft age to 30 years in July.