Russian president, Vladimir Putin has been offering $2,000 (£1,600) monthly payments and citizenship to Cuban men recruited into his army to help prosecute his war against Ukraine.

This is according to a viral leaked document and other online reports, while the BBC has reported that some social media posts suggest that some Cuban fighters were given Russian passports just months after they signed up.

The contracts being offered by Russia are attractive to the Cubans looking to flee the economic crisis in their country caused by the sanctions imposed by the United States.

The Cubans are also enticed to the attractive financial offer, which is hugely above the average monthly salary $35 (£28) being paid by their country.

Cuba who has been allies with Russia since the Cold War, don’t need a visa to travel to Russia, and also have direct flights to Moscow, making Putin’s recruitment of Cuban easier,

This also helps to replace some of his hundreds of fallen and wounded troops and prevents him from mobilising his citizens to the frontline of the war.

A pro-Ukrainian platform, InformNapalm, in September and October 2023, leaked online the passport details of over 200 Cubans said to have joined the Russian army, after it hacked the emails of a Russian military recruitment officer in Tula, in Moscow south.

A search on Facebook also revealed that 31 of the names in the leak report matched users whose owners appeared to be either wearing Russian military uniform, or resident in locations bearing Russian street signs or Russian number plates, many of whom posted the pictures in August 2023.

Another media outlet, Ryazan, last year, also published photos of new Cuban recruits signing contracts with the Russian army, saying the Cubans wanted to “help our country achieve the objectives of the special military operation,” as “some of them would like to become Russian citizens in the future.”

The Cuban authorities in Havana, in response to reports in September 2023 about Cubans fighting in Ukraine, said they arrested 17 people involved in their recruitment, Hours later, while the country’s foreign minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla said Havana was against “the participation of Cuban citizens in conflicts of any sort.”

However, the country’s ambassador to Russia, Julio Antonio Garmendía Peña, said his government had nothing against Cubans who wanted to “simply sign a contract and legally take part in this operation alongside the Russian army.”