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.
If only there was an international body to prevent or penalize countries like Russia who do this. We could call it the Nations United!
Hmm, doesn’t rule off the tongue as easily as League of Countries
At the rate we are going, we’ll end up with the League of LLCs
It impossible to do anything to one of the permanent security council members. They can each veto anything the UN can do to them. So, your idea is not that bright. You can read about the Russia Ukraine thing here. . It’s an actual UN write up about your big idea.
Oh damn, an article containing a topic about Russia and Cuba. I hope this post will contain a civil conversation about the topic without it derailing into a giant fighting pit about the United States.
Surprise surprise bunch of hexbearians doing it.
Everyone knows that socialism is when simping for autocrats doing an imperialism. That’s definitely not something a reactionary shill would do in bad faith, I’d like to make that clear.
I hope this post will contain a civil conversation about the topic without it derailing into a giant fighting pit about the United States.
Whelp…it was a good thought.
My view is is full of filtered by instance blocking and blocked those comments will stay.
But I know what they all say “it’s directly America’s fault” haha
Gotta love how the west is the ultimate villain terrorizing and destroying governments and also at the same time a feeble, weak failed state…
And these hexbears cry and shutdown when you confront them. Weak shits.
Let’s hope we have better luck next time I guess.
USA! USA! USA!
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.
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.
We used rape and sexual assault as an official interrogation method. The general in charge of Abu Ghraib, who as someone who would be in charge of those things is obviously a horrible person, was absolutely thrown under the bus by the Bush Administration to try and limit the explicitness that this was official US policy, but somewhat unsuccessfully. She was just a scapegoat.
In Afghanistan it was official policy that US soldiers had to guard the Northern Alliance warlords that we outsourced large parts of the war too as they would rape small boys. If they tried to interfere, they were officially reprimanded.
The US explicitly has used rape and sexual assault as part of its official doctrine.
This is just one of many examples. If it wasn’t the president directly raping children then he definitely enabled it.
Here’s what happened to the American soldiers who did that:
Green was discharged from the U.S. Army for mental instability before the crimes were known by his command, whereas Cortez, Barker, and Spielman were tried by a military court martial, convicted, and sentenced to decades in prison. Green was tried and convicted in a United States civilian court and sentenced to life in prison.
Russian soldiers in Ukraine are encouraged to commit rape. US soldiers in Iraq were sentenced to lengthy prison terms for committing rape.
The Iraq war was stupid shit based on lies. But the conduct of US soldiers and Russian soldiers is really freakin’ different.
It’s even worse: putin himself awarded the war criminals with medals, it’s just utter shameless https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/ukraine-war-putin-medals-bucha-b2060568.html
Citing “mass heroism and valour” but making no mention of Russia’s war in Ukraine, the decree Putin signed Monday awarded the 64th Motorised Infantry Brigade the honorary title of Guards.
💀
The Iraq war was stupid shit based on lies. But the conduct of US soldiers and Russian soldiers is really freakin’ different.
Speaks volumes about twisted freaks like you, who should be sentenced to life imprisonment. Calling genocide of over 1 million Iraqis “stupid shit” compared to probably like 1-2K civilian deaths caused by Russian army is remarkable amount of intellectual dishonesty.
No it is one of a handful of examples whereas Russia has NEVER abandoned rape as a war tactic.
Ok how many thousands of examples can you come up with in the US invasion of Iraq perpetrated by Americans. There are reports of thousands of rapes as Russia still utilizes rape as a war tactic and always have.
So not that much different from what America did in Iraq, got it!
Less rape, genocide and outright theft of appliances in America’s invasion but yeah both were objectively fought to steal resources.
1 million is less than 5-10K, according to western mathematics.
I love how western lib fascists are always apologetic about actual mass genociders and terrorists, while faking genocides about their media trial enemies.
Maybe we need to stop assuming we’re in a position to say what other people deserve
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Sure bub
Man I fuckin hate bush but you’re too high on the borscht if you think he’s comparable to Putin.
Manufacturing a war based on deceiving your population with hyper patriotic propaganda and out right lies is Manufacturing a war based on deceiving your population with hyper patriotic propaganda and out right lies 🤷♂️
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.
My comment wasn’t a reply to you, it was a reply to @[email protected] (Unless that account is an alt of yours, and you forgot to change accounts before replying.)
However, the comment I responded to was this:
Man I fuckin hate bush but you’re too high on the borscht if you think he’s comparable to Putin.
Bush is easily responsible for more deaths. If you have a better metric for evil, I’d love to hear it.
Oh shit just realized that, I’m high as cake balls on some home made edibles I underestimated. My bad.
Goddamn, I’m envious. I was getting stoned every day to the point that it wasn’t affecting me anymore. So I went cold turkey. It’s been 28 days so far.
Dry vape, then combine with oil at 175F for 4 hours, filter, bake = super dank.
How about deaths per month? This war has “only” gone on for 16 months and probably there are already 500.000 dead and 1.5 million wounded…and that’s not counting at least 20.000 dead civilians (>10% of inhabitants) just in Mariupol, at least 500.000 kidnapped children and at least 8 million refugees. If this war drags on for 20 years like Iraq at this intensity, are you sure it won’t be 10 times worse?
Okay… But why should you use deaths per month instead of overall deaths?
Because we don’t know how long this war is going to last and you’re making comparisons with a short war+long counterinsurgency that ended…so it’s hard to say more died in Iraq when you don’t know how many are going to die plus refugees plus kidnappings in this.
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.
Dennis Reynolds : Well dude, dude, think about it: he’s out in the middle of nowhere with some employer he barely knows. You know, he looks around and what does he see? Nothin’ but Eastern Europe. “Ahh, there’s nowhere for me to run. What am I gonna do, say ‘no’?”
Mac : Okay. That… that seems really dark.
Dennis Reynolds : Nah, no it’s not dark. You’re misunderstanding me, bro.
Mac : I’m-I think I am.
Dennis Reynolds : Yeah, you are, because if the girl said “no” then the answer obviously is “no”…
Mac : No, right.
Dennis Reynolds : But the thing is he’s not gonna say “no”, he would never say “no” because of the implication.
Mac : …Now you’ve said that word “implication” a couple of times. Wha-what implication?
Dennis Reynolds : The implication that things might go wrong for him if he refuses to fight for Russia. Now, not that things are gonna go wrong for him but he’s thinkin’ that they will.
Why would you ever accept any kind of deal which had you go into Russia?
Poverty
Oh Nohz! One country has sanctions! Good thing that nearly no one else does or they wouldn’t have anyone to trade with!
(Also the US Embargo is dumber than dirt and should have been ended 50 years ago.)
One Country 💀
When most of the world trades in the US Dollar, America having a trade embargo means a lot.
It doesn’t mean they can’t trade with other countries, but it very much complicates trade, especially with small countries.
Wendover Productions had a pretty good video on the topic recently.
Another good thing Trump ruined. Relations were repairing under Obama.
Sucks to get drawn into that conflict. On some level surely you’d know going to Russia in war time isn’t a smart thing to do.
I went to the USA multiple times while it was engaged in actions in Iraq and Afghanistan. Not once was I issued a gun and forcibly sent to the war zone.
I think that those are unequivalents
Why is that? Russia pitches its invasion of Ukraine as a “Special Military Operation” to its sphere of influence. That sounds similar enough to Combat Operations of the USA in the Middle East.
That’s likely the message the kid had. Russia is a massive country, and he’s been offered a construction job. I find it plausible that he had no idea he’d be drafted.
Russia is actively conscripting people. The U.S. has had an entirely ‘volunteer’ force for 50 years.
I mean from the kid’s perspective you’re not wrong but from ours, we know that the US doesn’t do that. Yes it drafted it citizens quite aggressively but not non-citizens or at least not on the sheer level that Russia is/has been doing.
The difference is that the US has a culture where such actions are unacceptable, and there are checks and balances to stop the government from forcing people to fight overseas. Without these, it’s certainly possible a US dictator could put illegal immigrants (or anyone) on a plane and send them to fight and die in Ukraine.
It’s good to have this exchange posted here.
We often see how the radical/far right and left cozy up to Russia by claiming this exact equivalence.
- Turns out, “you’ve been living in a Dreamland, Neo”
Those who do not learn history are doomed to die in a Russian war of aggression against their neighbor, or something.
$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.
I think that was a signing bonus, not an annual salary.
And yet, according to google, that’s higher than the average salary in Cuba. Not even minimum.
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.
How progressive of Putin.
Wouldn’t be surprised if there’s also a ton of North Koreans we never hear about.
Oops, didn’t specify what you’d be building. Trenches of course!
I’m not sure that’s OSHA compliant…
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!
“There’s nothing here but war, where the murderin’ cannons roar, And I am sick and tired of this hard fighting.”
I don’t get why the fuck are ruzzians are even fighting anymore. They wont win, they know it well enough. Why do their orcs still fight?
the ol’ bait and switch! classic! 🤣
