Activists manifest against Russia’s invasion to Ukraine and young Cubans sent to war

This Thursday a group of activists said in Washington DC to protest against Havana’s support for Russia’s illegal invasion to Ukraine.

During the demonstration, organized by the center for a free Cuba, activists requested that Russian and Cuban soldiers leave the war in Ukraine.

«We are protesting the crimes of the Castro dictatorship in Cuba and the young Cubans who have ordered to kill and die in Ukraine,» said Frank Calzón, executive director of the organization.

In his statements, Calzón also denounced the crimes of the Russian ruler, Vladimir Putin.

The demonstration first took place in front of the Embassy of Cuba and then went to the residence of Russia, in Washington DC., Where they waved the flag of the Russian democratic movement.

During the protest they also paid tribute to Cuban dissenting martyrs Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas and Orlando Zapata Tamayo, and the Russians Alexei Navalny and Boris Nemtsov.

The Cubans who demonstrated were joined by activists from «Russian America for Democracy in Russia«, including its president, Dmitry Valuev.

Young Cubans sent to Ukraine: «I never wanted to participate in a war»

An investigation of Schemes, of the Ukrainian service of RFE/RL, revealed the presence of a significant number of Cuban mercenaries in the Russian army, many of them linked to the 106 airborne division.

One of the cases presented by the study was that of Frank Dario Jarrosay Manfuga, a 36 -year -old Cuban who, after being captured by the Ukrainian forces, said he had been deceived with the promise of a construction work before being sent to the battle front.

«I never intended to kill anyone. I never wanted to participate in a war. I have a family,» said Manfuga, who now desperately seeks a way to get out of his situation.

Orlando Gutiérrez-Boronat, co-founder of the Cuban Democratic Board of Directors, a US-based NGO, told Schemes that, based «on passports obtained by Ukrainian computer pirates, our own information from Cuba, numerous videos that we have seen and the reports of some Cubans dead in combat, we can estimate that about 5,000 Cuban soldiers are fighting for Russia.»

Unlike other nationalities, Cubans have left a trail on social networks, which allowed journalists to identify hundreds of them and locate training facilities in Russia and in occupied territories of Ukraine, which calls into question the alleged efforts of the Cuban government for «neutralizing and dismantling a network traffic network», as stated in September 2023.

Although the Cuban government has not officially recognized its support for the Russian invasion, its actions have been interpreted as an alignment with the Kremlin.

In May 2024, the ruler Miguel Díaz-Canel expressed his support for Vladimir Putin in a meeting in Moscow, coinciding with the May 9 parade in commemoration of World War II. Since Ukraine, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that «Cuba has clearly chosen Russia’s side in the large -scale war due to its anti -American position.»