Tue 05 September 2023:
Cuban officials are seeking to “neutralize and dismantle” a human trafficking ring that has coerced Cuban people to fight for Russia in the conflict in Ukraine, according to the country’s foreign ministry.
Few information were provided in the statement issued by Cuba’s foreign ministry on Monday, although it was highlighted that the trafficking network was active both on the Caribbean island nation and in Russia.
“The Ministry of the Interior detected and is working on the neutralization and dismantling of a human trafficking network that operates from Russia to incorporate Cuban citizens living there, and even some from Cuba, into the military forces participating in war operations in Ukraine,” the ministry said in the statement.
“Cuba has a firm and clear historical position against mercenarism and plays an active role in the United Nations in repudiation of this practice,” the ministry said, according to an unofficial translation.
A Russian publication in Ryazan, Russia, stated in late May that some Cuban nationals had signed contracts with the Russian military and had been transported to Ukraine in exchange for Russian citizenship.
The ministry further said, “Cuba is not part of the war in Ukraine. It is acting and will act vigorously against whoever, from the national territory, participates in any form of human trafficking for the purposes of recruitment of mercenarism so that Cuban citizens use weapons against any country.”
If the Ryazan report was related to the Cuban foreign ministry statement was not immediately evident.
Russia announced a plan to increase the number of its armed forces by more than 30% to 1.5 million combat men last year. This lofty goal made more difficult by Russia’s significant but undisclosed losses in the war in Ukraine.
Additionally, Cuba stated in the statement that it has already started investigating cases of its nationals being coerced to fight in Ukraine.
“Attempts of this nature have been neutralized and criminal proceedings have been initiated against people involved in these activities,” according to the statement.
Al Jazeera reported last year that the Russian government, through the Wagner mercenary force, had recruited Syrians to fight alongside Russian troops in Ukraine. Thousands across war-torn Syria had reportedly expressed an interest in signing up.
An Iraqi national was reportedly killed in battle in Ukraine in June while fighting alongside Russia’s Wagner mercenary group.
Abbas Abuthar Witwit, who died, was enlisted from a Russian prison on the promise that his sentence would be commuted after serving in Ukraine.
SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES
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