Cuba comments on its accusation of involvement in the Ukraine war

The Russia-Ukraine war broke out in 2022_Archive

The Russia-Ukraine war broke out in 2022_Archive

Cuba denied, on Saturday, American accusations of its involvement in the war in Ukraine or of sending military forces there.

A statement issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that Cuba “rejects the false accusations promoted by the United States government regarding Cuba’s alleged involvement in the military conflict in Ukraine.”

The statement added that since September 2023, 26 Cubans have been sentenced to prison terms ranging from 5 to 14 years on charges of working as mercenaries, after reports spread of Cubans being sent to the battlefront in Ukraine.

A US State Department spokesman told Agence France-Presse earlier this week that his country “is aware of reports that Cuban citizens are fighting alongside Russian forces in the Russian-Ukrainian war.”

The spokesman added: “The Cuban regime has failed to protect its citizens from being used as pawns in this war.”

In May, a Ukrainian government initiative encouraging enemy fighters to surrender confirmed that it possessed data on more than a thousand Cuban mercenaries recruited by Russia since early 2023.

The “I Want to Live” initiative revealed that it is “reliably aware of the names and personal details of 1,028 Cubans who signed contracts with the Russian Armed Forces between 2023 and 2024.”

The Cuban Foreign Ministry’s statement indicated that Havana “does not have accurate information about Cuban citizens participating alone in the forces of the two conflicting parties, Russia and Ukraine.”

He stressed that “none of them received encouragement, commitment or approval from the Cuban state for their actions.”

Cubans told AFP that their relatives, who left for Russia in 2023, were misled by advertisements on social media.