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How Russia is recruiting Cubans to fight in Ukraine

Time

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October 09, 2023

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

How Russia is recruiting Cubans to fight in Ukraine

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.

MEER VERHALEN VAN Time

Time

Time

The journalist and the jinx in a suburban standoff

CLAIRE DANES GETS A LOT OF ATTENTION for her “cry face.” It is, indeed, a sight to behold. Engulfed by waves of sorrow, her chin vibrates, her eyes scrunch, the corners of her mouth turn down as though tugged by invisible weights.

time to read

4 mins

December 08, 2025

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LIVING IN PUBLIC

“The camera eats first.” A decade ago, that phrase was a joke about influencers and their avocado toast. Now it's shorthand for how every corner of life—dinners, cleaning, milestones, even grief—can be packaged for public consumption. We live in a world where intimacy has become inventory, where the difference between living and posting is often just a matter of lighting.

time to read

3 mins

December 08, 2025

Time

Time

5 migraine symptoms that aren't headaches

NEARLY 40 MILLION people in the U.S. suffer from migraines, making the painful disorder one of the most common that neurologists treat. It's also among the most confusing. Because of the many ways it can show up, it can take more than a decade to receive an accurate diagnosis.

time to read

2 mins

December 08, 2025

Time

Time

Distress Signal

WHAT THE L.A. FIRES REVEAL ABOUT AMERICA'S BLEAK CLIMATE FUTURE

time to read

13 mins

December 08, 2025

Time

The food pyramid may be back on the menu

EARLY PUBLIC NUTRITION ADVICE CAME AS A WARNING. Wilbur O. Atwater, a chemist and renowned nutritionist, wrote in an 1902 edition of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) digest, Farmers' Bulletin, that \"Unless care is exercised in selecting food, a diet may result which is one-sided or badly balanced—that is, one in which either protein or fuel ingredients (carbohydrate and fat) are provided in excess ... The evils of overeating may not be felt at once, but sooner or later they are sure to appear.\"

time to read

2 mins

December 08, 2025

Time

Time

Where top U.S. leaders earn their stripes

AS THE INDUSTRIES AND COMPANIES driving the American economy change, new generations of leaders are rotated in to take the helm.

time to read

3 mins

December 08, 2025

Time

Time

The Risk Report

THREE YEARS AND NINE MONTHS after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the war grinds on. There's been plenty of news and noise of late. Yet as we approach the end of 2025, there's no sign of resolution on the horizon.

time to read

2 mins

December 08, 2025

Time

Time

JON CHU'S AMERICAN DREAM

The Wicked: For Good director on trying to change the world, one blockbuster at a time

time to read

6 mins

December 08, 2025

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Time

Ken Burns'

The filmmaker on his 12-hour documentary The American Revolution, the importance of undertow, and what's next

time to read

2 mins

December 08, 2025

Time

Time

A seductive Dangerous Liaisons remix, with feminist intentions

There are no heroes in Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Pierre Choderlos de Laclos' 1782 novel of end-stage French aristocratic decadence. Its chief villain is Marquise Isabelle de Merteuil, a master manipulator who exploits her former lover the Vicomte de Valmont's resurgent desire for her with a wager that dooms them both. As a teenage Fiona Apple dryly noted: “It's a sad, sad world when a girl will break a boy just because she can.”

time to read

1 mins

December 08, 2025

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