Olga Shilyayeva and Yelena Smirnova have both now been deployed (Image: RFE)
Two Russian women involved in a scheme which lured hundreds of Cubans to Russia under false pretences have reportedly been sent to the front lines in Ukraine. Olga Shilyayeva, 41, a part-time hairdresser whose husband serves in a military aviation maintenance unit, is said to be serving in a unit largely composed of former prison inmates attached to Russia’s 1st Tank Army.
Her alleged co-conspirator, Yelena Smirnova, 41, a Ryazan-based travel agent who orchestrated the recruitment, is also reported to have been deployed to Ukraine in spring 2025. The two women, together with a Cuban accomplice, allegedly recruited more than 3,000 foreigners, including dozens of young Cubans, under the promise of lucrative work and eventual Russian citizenship. Smirnova posted job adverts in Spanish-language social media groups, offering monthly salaries of around 200,000 rubles and claiming to cover recruits’ travel and accommodation costs upfront.
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Many recruits, however, were unaware they were signing Russian-language contracts they could not understand and were later forced to reimburse Smirnova from their own bank accounts, said Radio Free Europe.
By mid-2023, some recruits refused to make payments. Several accused Smirnova of skimming money from their accounts, prompting police complaints. In April 2024, Smirnova was arrested, charged with theft, and jailed.
Her defence lawyer, Sergei Poselyagin, insisted she was the victim of a conspiracy, writing that investigators were “twisting the facts” and requesting her early release in exchange for signing a Defence Ministry contract to work as a translator in a signals intelligence unit.
Shilyayeva worked closely with Smirnova, handling contracts for dozens of recruits each day. Another Cuban woman, Dayana Diaz, 37, living in Russia, was also involved, assisting with paperwork, purchasing tickets, and posting recruitment adverts.
These two men spoke of their experiences during a video blog earlier this year (Image: YouTube)
Diaz’s social media featured Cuban and Russian flags, and she advertised elaborately carved soap bouquets. Some Cubans who were defrauded identified her in complaints and video interviews.
The young Cubans caught up in the scheme include 19-year-olds Alex Vega and Andorf Velasquez. Speaking from a military hospital in Kaliningrad, they said they had travelled to Russia “to make some money,” arranged by a trio of women: “two Russian, one Cuban.”
Once in Moscow, they were forced to sign contracts they did not understand and were sent to Ryazan, where they were housed in a school dormitory.
They said in an August 2023 video: “They ended up on the front lines in Ukraine, digging ditches – and eventually being wounded.”
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Russia has relied heavily on foreign fighters in Ukraine. Ukrainian and Western estimates suggest almost 700,000 Russian troops have been deployed, with around 12,000 North Koreans fighting alongside them.
Cubans are thought to be the largest foreign contingent: US State Department cables put the number of Cubans fighting at around 5,000, with at least 20,000 more “awaiting travel and deployment.”
The scheme’s links to Russian intelligence remain murky. Ukrainian lawmaker Marian Zablotskiy suggested it may have operated with the knowledge of the FSB or GRU, though no direct proof has emerged.
Systema, the investigative unit reporting on the scheme, found no clear evidence tying the women to official agencies, though organising travel and visas for hundreds of recruits would have required scrutiny from government authorities.
Cuba’s Foreign Ministry has denied involvement, insisting that “Cuba is not part of the armed conflict in Ukraine, nor does it participate with military personnel there, or in any other country,” and affirming a “practice of zero tolerance for mercenaries, trafficking in persons and the participation of its nationals in any armed confrontation in another country.”
The case exposes a network of deception and exploitation.
Young Cubans, drawn by the promise of work and pay, were defrauded and sent to fight in Ukraine, while the women who orchestrated the scheme, including Shilyayeva and reportedly Smirnova, are themselves now on the front lines.
As Poselyagin wrote in defence of Smirnova, investigators were “twisting the facts,” underscoring the complex and dangerous web surrounding Russia’s use of foreign fighters.