Well, the report I saw on the Cuban people going to Russia to fight for Putin was talking about four hundred civilians who became military units in the front, that is indeed quite an small number of soldiers, which is unlikely to make a difference on the result of battles by its own, so I am not sure what is the objective of this recruitment campaign. It could be about slowly recruiting foreigners, so Putin would not need to gather his own population and levy for more native Russians to go fight in the front.

I am not sure I would call these people to be used as "cheap meat" as you call them, if the numbers of their salaries and the possibility on getting Russian citizenship are not unfunded, then they are being paid very good salaries, considering they come from a third world country like Cuba. I am not informed on those citizens from Nepal and African countries though, It makes sense something like that could be happening.