The apparently conflicting statements follow Cuban state-run and foreign media reports suggesting that young Cuban men have enlisted in the Kremlin´s military in recent months as mercenaries and victims in alleged human trafficking schemes. Cuba´s top diplomat in Moscow, Julio Antonio Garmendia Pena, told Russia´s state-run RIA news agency hours earlier on Thursday that those arrested in Cuba, all Cuban citizens, had been engaged in illegal activities and had broken the law. Cuba did not respond to Reuters inquiry regarding the apparently contradictory statements. Cuba's foreign ministry said last week the human trafficking network that authorities were now working to "neutralise and dismantle" had operated from Russia "to incorporate Cuban citizens living there, and even some from Cuba, into the military forces participating in war operations in Ukraine". Cuba has denied any involvement in the war in Ukraine.

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Persons: Juan Medina, Bruno Rodriguez, Rodriguez, Cuba ´, Julio Antonio Garmendia Pena, Vladimir Putin, Maxim Rodionov, Dave Sherwood, Gareth Jones, Leslie Adler Organizations: REUTERS, Cuban Foreign, Cuban, Russia, Cubans, Thomson Locations: Cuban, Cuba, Madrid, Spain, Moscow, Russia, Ukraine, Havana