On May 8, 2025, a Telegram channel of the Ukrainian government published the names of 39 Cuban citizens who died while serving in the Russian army that invaded that country.
The publication was made —intentionally— one day before the Victory Day parade in Moscow, when the Kremlin celebrated the 80th anniversary of Nazi Germany's surrender to Soviet Marshal Zhukov.
The channel, which in English is called I Want to Live, filtered the names of the fallen foreign soldiers that they managed to compile.
The nationalities of those listed—Syria, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Serbia, Turkmenistan, and Cuba—correspond with some of the leaders who attended the parade.
The Cuban leader Miguel Díaz-Canel attended the celebration with his wife, Lis Cuesta, who does not hold an official position in the government.
“Will the leaders of these countries have the courage to remind Putin of his citizens, those who Russia recruits with impunity for the war and then forgets as soon as they die or are captured? Are they willing to defend the lives of their people? Or will they continue to turn a blind eye to what Russia is doing to the inhabitants of their countries?” stated Quiero Vivir —a Ukrainian state project that provides information on prisoners of war, missing military personnel, and the deceased of the Russian army in Ukraine.
That medium has detected more than 600 deceased individuals from the mentioned countries. This is not the total number of foreign soldiers fallen in the invasion, as the project indicates that even the Russian Ministry of Defense cannot know for certain.
From April 1 to May 2025, Quiero Vivir has published the names of 5,204 foreign mercenaries; among them, 1,028 are Cubans, nearly one-fifth.
It clarifies that not all the filtered soldiers come from countries within Putin's sphere of influence. There are others, like Sri Lanka, that have also recorded significant casualties.
On its part, the independent media elTOQUE was able to confirm the names and details of some of the soldiers mentioned in the released list.
Esto fue posible, en parte, porque hubo muertes que ya habían sido reportadas con anterioridad por la prensa independiente.
It is the case, for example, of Raibel Palacio Herrera, who passed away on January 12, 2024; and the young boxing champion from Villa Clara, Yansiel Morejón Díaz, who died on December 28, 2023.
He also found matches between some of the names on the list and reports from local Russian press —such as in the case of the resident of Cienfuegos, Eduardo Montero Martínez.
The oldest person on the list is Reinerio Robles, who passed away at the age of 62 in 2024. The youngest, Juan Raúl Pedroso, fell on June 21, 2024, at the age of 23.
The list of 39 names is not exhaustive. For example, it does not account for the death of Michael Valido, a 31-year-old young man from San Miguel del Padrón in Havana, who lost his life in 2023 while fighting on the Russian side in the war against Ukraine.
Transnational media and independent press investigations reveal that other deaths have occurred, which, so far, have also not been accounted for.
It is also known that other soldiers have passed away, but their families chose not to make the news public.
A continuación publicamos the list of the 39 deceased Cubans, their date of birth, date of death, and the identification number in the Russian army:
1- A. A. A. (August 31, 1981 – April 3, 2024 - AB-305924)
2- R. A. M. (02/01/1971–23/02/2024 - AB-009754)
3- M. J. B. G. (July 25, 1996 – May 3, 2024 - AB-305116)
4- A. B. L. (02/12/1979–31/08/2024 - AB-305892)
5- A. S. B. (September 19, 1994 – December 11, 2024 - AB-286716)
6- I. G. C. (09/15/1965–01/05/2024 - AB-286543)
7- R. R. V. (04/03/1962–22/05/2024 - AB-305890)
8- Y. D. R. (June 23, 1998 – April 14, 2024 - AB-009710)
9- R. I. C. (14/09/1991–19/09/2024 - MT-815907)
10- L. A. C. P. (09/09/1996–27/06/2024 - AB-305197)
11- O. L. M. (February 15, 1982 – June 13, 2024 - AB-305889)
12- A. L. T. (06/20/1993–12/13/2024 - AB-305186)
13- M. M. L. (January 22, 1991 – April 30, 2024 - AB-305211)
14- L. R. M. S. (12/17/1994–11/15/2023 - MT-815989)
15- E. M. M. (01/07/1978–02/11/2023 - MT-910589)
16- L. P. M. (04/09/1986–23/03/2024 - MT-815954)
17- Y. M. D. (04/06/1995–28/12/2023 - MT-815956)
18- A. O. M. (06/05/1979–05/08/2024 - AB-306907)
19- P. A. O. G. (07/14/1965–01/17/2024 - AB-305922)
20- C. A. O. M. (08/08/1987–25/05/2024 - AB-305170)
21- R. P. H. (10/07/1998–12/01/2024 - AB-288141)
22- J. R. P. B. (01/09/2000–21/06/2024 - AB-305886)
23 - L. A. P. R. (17/10/1968–14/02/2024 - AB-009875)
24- Y. A. P. S. (01/08/1979–09/05/2024 - AB-286643)
25- A. P. P. (11/25/1981–07/22/2024 - AB-307107)
26- R. P. R. (01/21/1967–05/13/2024 - AB-909046)
27- I. R. H. (10/13/1994–12/01/2024 - MT-939789)
28- L. Á. R. L. (August 23, 1973 – January 4, 2024 - AB-009641)
29- E. R. D. L. S. (09/19/1979–02/28/2024 - AB-009554)
30- I. S. G. (01/19/1995–02/03/2024 - AB-305090)
31- M. A. C. P. (03/05/1982–05/24/2024 - AB-305147)
32- Á. L. S. L. (12/20/1971–06/18/2024 - MT-815916)
33- L. Z. H. (02/18/1967–02/22/2024 - AB-286652)
34- B. A. T. D. L. C. (12/06/1982–05/03/2024 - AB-305341)
35- J. L. T. S. (09/19/1982–04/26/2024 - MT-815798)
36- J. F. J. N. (April 21, 1967 – June 27, 2024 - AB-306908)
37- C. C. F. (03/08/1988–27/06/2024 - MT-847046)
38- C. O. E. D. (09/15/1997–06/27/2024 - AB-306959)
39- R. P. D. (05/11/1980–22/02/2024 - AB-288129)
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