A Cuban teenager unwittingly found himself on the front lines of the war in Ukraine after accepting a job offer he received on WhatsApp to do “construction work” for the Russian military, according to Time magazine.
Alex Vegas Díaz, 19, and a friend were taken to a military base, outfitted with weapons, and then sent to fight, according to Time, which reviewed social media footage posted by Vegas Díaz.
In one of the videos, dated August 31, which went viral, Vegas Díaz can be seen in a Russian hospital recovering from an unspecified illness. According to Time, he said he was due to be sent back to the front upon recovery.
From his hospital bed, he pleaded to “help get us out of here,” adding: “What is happening in Ukraine is ugly—to see people with their heads open before you, to see how people are killed, feel the bombs falling next to you.”
According to Time, Vegas Díaz said in one video: “There are dead Cubans, there are missing Cubans, and this is not going to end until the war is over.”
He added: “We know that Cuba is aware and our advice to Cubans is not to come here. This is the craziest thing. Crazy. Don’t do it.”
Time reported that Vegas Díaz became part of a large operation that openly recruited hundreds of Cubans to join the Russian army to fight in Ukraine.
According to the magazine, the recruitment effort involved adverts for job contracts with the Ministry of Defence in Russia that began to appear on Cuban Facebook groups in June.
It said that recruits were offered 204,000 rubles, or $2,120 US dollars, to sign up.
Average monthly salaries in Cuba are dramatically lower, making it an enticing prospect.
Time reviewed the job contracts, which it said required a one-year commitment, but came with an enlistment fee and a payout for the families of recruits if they are killed in action.
The exact number of Cubans recruited through this initiative remains uncertain, with estimates provided to Time ranging from hundreds to more than a thousand
Though Cuba’s foreign ministry described the recruitment effort as a “human trafficking network,” four Cuba experts and former US officials expressed skepticism to Time
They said that the Cuban government, a long-standing ally of Russia, may be using such language to maintain the appearance of a neutral stance in the Ukraine conflict, Time reported.
Regardless of the nature or provenance of the recruitment drive, there is concern in the US that recruits such as Vegas Díaz may have been deceived into accepting job offers.
The State Department said in a statement provided to Time that “we are deeply concerned that young Cubans may have been deceived and recruited to fight for Russia in its brutal full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and we continue to monitor this situation closely.”
The US State Department did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
A Cuban teenager unwittingly found himself on the front lines of the war in Ukraine after accepting a job offer he received on WhatsApp to do “construction work” for the Russian military, according to TIME magazine.
TIME reported that Vegas Díaz became part of a large operation that openly recruited hundreds of Cubans to join the Russian army to fight in Ukraine.
According to the magazine, the recruitment effort involved adverts for job contracts with the Ministry of Defence in Russia that began to appear on Cuban Facebook groups in June.
TIME reviewed the job contracts, which it said required a one-year commitment, but came with an enlistment fee and a payout for the families of recruits if they are killed in action.
They said that the Cuban government, a long-standing ally of Russia, may be using such language to maintain the appearance of a neutral stance in the Ukraine conflict, TIME reported.
The State Department said in a statement provided to TIME that “we are deeply concerned that young Cubans may have been deceived and recruited to fight for Russia in its brutal full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and we continue to monitor this situation closely.”
The original article contains 488 words, the summary contains 196 words. Saved 60%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
Putin is not a Comrade and is just as bad if not worse than Bush. This is a war to secure resources, not a war to denazify Ukraine.
It feels weird to compare Putin to bush given the probable genocide going on. Murdering whole villages, raping babies, shipping kids back to Russia to brainwash them, forcing fake elections to annex territory, purposefully causing international crisis by limiting the export of food, and purposefully blowing up dams. Bush and Putin are incomparable.
Bush and Cheney deserves prison. Putin and his whole government deserve to see the world upside down for a brief time.
Less rape, genocide and outright theft of appliances in America’s invasion but yeah both were objectively fought to steal resources.
Maybe we need to stop assuming we’re in a position to say what other people deserve
It’s quite disingenuous to compare the worst atrocities committed by individuals, which were then tried and sentenced, to Russia’s standard operation procedure and doctrine.
Fr, bush did to Iraq, with bombs and white phosphorous, what liberals think Putin is doing to Ukraine right now
It seems to me at least that this is a war to eradicate a people as evidenced by Russia targeting schools, abducting children and brutally killing civilians. Make no mistake, Putin intends to end Ukraine not just by annexing territory, but by erasing their entire history and cultural identity.
Man I fuckin hate bush but you’re too high on the borscht if you think he’s comparable to Putin.
Yeah, so far Bush is responsible for far more death.
I’m not sure what metric you would use to quantify how bad a person is, but the number of people they are responsible for killing seems like an okay one.
They are both fucking evil, and should be lined up against a wall.
Stop trying to rehabilitate Bush, and justifying the horror of the Iraq war. You don’t need to do that to criticize Putin.
Bruh, never in my wildest dreams did I think comparing Bush to Putin in 2023 could be construed as me trying to rehabilitate bush’s image, I’m literally 💀Lemmy be wilding out, I love it here.
TIME is full of shit. Cuba just shut down a recruitment cell, and they covered the collapse of the USSR years ago. The friendly relationship with Russia died with the USSR.
Yeah cause Cuba’s government is fairly based and takes steps to protect its citizens from being exploited by Oligarchs
Isn’t Cuba one of the very few countries that recognises the Russian annexation of Crimea?
Time isn’t full of shit. This did happen and Cuba shut it down because despite their issues they are not ok with the exploitation of Cubans.
$2120 is too low for a year long contract for overseas work even for third world country standards, let alone in a country that is involved in an active war.
What 3rd world country? Monthly $2k + $1,5k bonus at signing, +other bonuses and priveleges, +compensations if hurt\dead in a first month making it one median yearly payment in Russia meaning half of the country earn less than that in 12 months, and it’s still not the worst country in the world economically speaking. You mean there’s a lack of poor and desperate people with no prospects in life? For Cubans it’s also a chance to settle overseas and drag their family here, so I do see why they’d pick that, especially if they are lied to about what it means. As one criminal saying goes, gullible people would never get extinct.
