Mercenaries might provide quantity, but certainly not quality. Indeed, mercenaries were responsible for the biggest threat to Putin's grip on power when Yevgeny Prigozhin launched his ill-fated rebellion earlier this year. However, these mercenary fighters are not professionally trained, do not understand their responsibilities under the Geneva Convention, and there is growing evidence suggesting mercenaries have committed a huge number of war crimes that have led to President Putin being indicted by the International Criminal Court. The irony here is that Russia has been heavily reliant on mercenary fighters for battlefield successes in the war in Ukraine.

The Cuban authorities have arrested 17 traffickers and, if found guilty, they face a life in prison or potentially the death sentence. Russia intends to recruit around 140,000 fighters this year and has been targeting migrants, some from central Asia, offering fast-track citizenship and cash to fight for Russia. In Cuba, the authorities in Havana have declared that they have dismantled a people-trafficking net, that was seeking to recruit Cubans to become mercenaries fighting for Russia in the war in Ukraine. He is keen not to initiate another round of mobilisations as that could erode Russian public confidence, so is turning to a global recruiting drive to meet the military demand. More now from Sky News military analyst Sean Bell, who has this to say about the significance of reports that Russia has been attempting to recruit soldiers from Cuba.įollowing the demise of the Wagner Group of mercenaries and a highly attritional phase of the war in Ukraine, President Putin needs to recruit more soldiers.

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