From our Bureau of Cannon Fodder From Third World Hellholes with some assistance from our Russification of Cuba Bureau
Frank Darío, a 34-year-old Cuban from Guantanamo who was in the company of 35 other Cubans, enlisted in the Russian army in exchange for about $2,700 a month and the promise of acquiring Russian citizenship. He is now a prisoner of war. Interviewed by his Ukrainian captors, he has revealed many of the nasty details of his experience, which confirm suspicions that had never been previously confirmed about the mistreatment endured by these mercenaries at the hands of their Russian employers.
In addition to the article below, CiberCuba has posted a profile of this Cuban lured into combat by Grand Putinia.
Loosely translated from CiberCuba
Ukrainian troops have released a video of the interrogation of a Cuban mercenary captured among Russian troops in the Marinka area of Donetsk region.
“A Cuban mercenary recently captured in the Marinka area. He identifies himself as Frank Darío Jarrosay Manfuga. The prisoner stated that there were 35 Cuban citizens in his unit. He went to serve because they promised him citizenship and about three thousand dollars in salary,” said Telegram profiles linked to the Ukrainian army.
The interrogation of the Cuban mercenary revealed that he had been enlisted in the Russian army since January 16. Frank Darío, whose last names were unintelligible in the video, was born on September 6, 1989, in Guantánamo, where he resided until his trip to Russia.
According to him, he was contacted by other Cubans in Russia, who told him that the Russians were looking for people “to work in construction.” In exchange, they offered him a contract for 250,000 rubles per month (over $2,700 per month) and Russian citizenship. Frank Darío accepted and ended up on the battlefield captured by the Ukrainians.
Russian authorities paid him his February salary and an initial aid of 100,000 rubles. During the interrogation, Frank Darío admitted to being nervous and recounted that there were about 35 Cubans in his unit.
“At no time did we know we had to go to war, understand? We came to do masonry work. They made us sign a contract in Russian, which we didn’t understand… Before you know it, you’re in a bunker shooting,” said the mercenary, while considering that “the Cubans who come here have no military training.”
In his account, the young man acknowledged that the Russian commanders’ attitude towards the Cubans was “very negative.” In that sense, he explained that they never clearly told them what the mission was and spoke to them in Russian without translation. As an example, he mentioned the last mission where he was captured, during which he got lost in a forest. “Luckily, the Ukrainians didn’t shoot me,” he said.
“Cuban, Syrian, Egyptian, Nigerian mercenaries. And there will be useful idiots who will say that these ‘ideological’ Cuban affiliates returned in 2014 to defend Pushkin and Dostoevsky in Donetsk schools. And they won’t see them as poor cattle who came to earn a penny, because in their own country, they are asses,” a profile close to the Ukrainian troops denounced on Telegram.
Frank Darío was captured on a mission to transport portable solar panels. He was accompanied by two Cubans and three Russians when they started to be bombed. At that moment, they scattered, and he got lost in the forest until he saw a Ukrainian soldier whom he initially mistook for a Russian and ended up surrendering to.
According to his testimony, there have been cases of mistreatment of Cuban mercenaries among Russian troops, including beatings. Frank Darío did not experience this personally.
Continue reading HERE in Spanish