How Russia is recruiting Cubans to fight in Ukraine

ALEX VEGAS DÍAZ WAS SURPRISED to find himself sleeping next to Russian soldiers in a trench in Ukraine, more than 6,000 miles from home. In his telling, the 19-year-old Cuban accepted an offer posted on WhatsApp to make good money doing "construction work" for the Russian military. 

- VERA BERGENGRUEN

Instead, he and a friend were outfitted with weapons and sent against their will to the front lines of a war they never intended to join. "Please, please help get us out of here," Vegas Díaz said in an Aug. 31 video.

The plea for help went viral. Similar stories began to surface, as Cubans sought information about family members who had also flown to Moscow to join the Russian military. The outcry prompted the Cuban government to issue a striking allegation: a "human-trafficking network" operating out of Russia was luring young Cubans to enlist to fight in Ukraine. On Sept. 8, Cuban officials said they had arrested 17 people in connection with the alleged trafficking scheme.

But social media posts, audio messages, and videos from recruits in Russia reviewed by TIME, along with interviews with family members and documents obtained by a Ukrainian hacker group, combine to tell a very different story. They indicate that Vegas Díaz became caught up in an organized operation that has openly recruited hundreds of Cuban volunteers to fight in Moscow's depleted army.