Francisco García is Cuban and is currently trapped in Greece, processing his political asylum application. As he explained to CiberCuba, he is a “soldier of the Russian Federation.” He wants to return to Russia despite acknowledging that enlisting was a mistake. “I regret having been a mercenary,” he says via WhatsApp to CiberCuba.
In the midst of the ‘impasse’ he is experiencing, he has reached out to this platform, seeking help to make his case known. “I am a soldier of the Russian Federation.” I am in Greece without documents, without anything for political asylum,” he wrote a few weeks ago.
This Thursday, he contacted CiberCuba again to explain that he now has the red card that asylum seekers receive in Europe while their case is being processed. The problem is that this document is neither valid for work nor for visiting a hospital.
“Why are you doing this to me? This red card has no validity here in Greece. It’s useless. I want to go to Russia. I don’t want to stay here any longer. Do you know what it’s like to spend 10 years without a passport or any legal documents that confirm your status in the country?” he adds via email.
His experience in Greece has not been good. “They were going to send me to Thessaloniki, 190 kilometers from the center of Greece, so that I would lose the day of the asylum interview,” he comments.
“This government has left me to fend for myself. I don’t know what to do or where to go. I don’t want to be here in Greece anymore. They gave me a red card that is useless, not even for hospitals,” he insists.
In early December 2024, El Toque published the story of a young Cuban, Francisco García, originally from Santa Clara, who was recruited in Cuba by Elena Shuvalova and Dayana Díaz to enlist in the war in Russia against Ukraine, in exchange for vacations every six months, Russian citizenship, and the assurance of not having to fight on the front lines.
They only fulfilled the vacation part of all that. He brought his partner out of Cuba and defected with her. Since then, he has been in an immigration detention center in Greece. They arrived there with stops in Belarus, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, and finally, Athens.
The presence of Cuban mercenaries in the conflict between Ukraine and Russia is no secret to anyone. There is graphic material that proves the presence of citizens from Cuba among the ranks of the Russian Army during the invasion of Ukraine. A video published in January 2024 showed a Russian fighter introducing his Cuban comrade in a trench.
Many Cubans were recruited on the island to participate in the war in Ukraine with promises of high salaries and a quick path to Russian citizenship. However, upon arriving in Russia, they found themselves caught in a war that was expected to be swift but has now lasted over three years.
In September 2023, the Cuban regime claimed to have arrested 17 individuals linked to a human trafficking network that was recruiting mercenaries for Russia. These arrests came after initial revelations about the presence of Cubans in the conflict
Many of these Cuban mercenaries participated in some of the bloodiest battles of the war in Ukraine, being linked to the 106th Airborne Division of Russia, according to a report by Schemes, the investigative unit of the Ukrainian news service RFE/RL.
Cubans like Frank Darío Jarrosay Manfuga, 36 years old, have been captured and have claimed that they were deceived with false promises of employment. In his case, he stated he was a Geography teacher and musician in Cuba, and that he had been recruited under false promises of working in construction and sent to the front lines without a clear understanding of the situation.
Ukraine has already been able to demonstrate that, in addition to Cubans, Russia has sent Chinese and North Korean mercenaries to the front.