From our Soldiers of Misfortune Bureau with some assistance from our Russification of Cuba Bureau
The deaths of two Cubans in the Ukraine war have been reported this week. The first, Yansiel Morejón, 26, was reported killed in action on January 10. The latest fallen mercenary is Raibel Palacio Herrera, 21.
No one knows for sure how many Cubans have died thus far in Russia’s war of aggression. But you can bet that all Cubans fighting that war for Czar Vlad the Invader are being used as cannon fodder. In the case of this latest reported casualty, the young man was hired to “dig trenches”, but found himself in the front line.
Loosely translated from Cubanos Por El Mundo:
Cuban mercenary Raibel Palacio Herrera, 21, who had been recruited by Russia for the war, died in the city of Kherson, after a drone attack launched by Ukraine.
The young Cuban’s mother is devastated by this news and told Univisión that her son has two little girls, one of them is newborn, and she did not know her because he was recruited in November 2023.
What they told the family and the young man is that he would be taken to Russia to supposedly build trenches on the battlefield against Ukraine; But when they arrived at the scene, the victim reported that they had been deceived.
“Those people are scamming us. We thought one thing and another came out,” the young Cuban, now deceased, had told his wife in an audio from Russia.
The family learned the news of the Cuban’s death because his mother received a WhatsApp message saying that Palacio Herrera died after being hit by a Ukrainian drone in an attack where another colleague was also seriously injured.
The Russian authorities told the Cuban’s mother that his body would be repatriated to the island, but a few days have passed and they have not even contacted the Cuban embassy in Moscow.
The Cuban woman and the entire family are desperate because they do not know where the young man’s body is. A cousin of the deceased assured that the alleged contract presented to the recruited young people spoke of alleged money that the family has not seen.
“It’s all a lie, please I want those who have to do with the recruitment to get what they deserve, because of them today a family is devastated without news of the culprit of our mourner,” he stated in a Facebook post.
It is important to mention that on January 10, another Cuban died, the young boxer Yansiel Morejón, 26 years old, another victim of human trafficking between Havana and Moscow.
There is not such thing as a free lunch. From 1961 to 1990 the Soviet Union supported Cuba. Now it is time to pay up. If Fidel was alive he would say your son died for “la Patria”. A noble sacrifice.
Also waiting in line to get their payments are the Chinese, the Cuban Diaspora, the USA business community, the Spaniards, the French and the British.