US Aims to Isolate Cuba at the UN: Allegations of Cuban Mercenaries Fighting for Russia in Ukraine

The administration under President Donald Trump has urged international allies to oppose the annual United Nations resolution demanding the end of the embargo on Cuba. This move is based on claims that the Havana regime is actively supporting Russia's invasion of Ukraine by integrating thousands of Cuban mercenaries into Moscow's army, as revealed by a State Department internal memo obtained by Reuters.

The unclassified document, dated October 2, was distributed to numerous US diplomatic missions with instructions to persuade aligned governments and international partners to vote against or abstain from the resolution. Since 1992, the resolution has called on Washington to lift the trade embargo imposed on Cuba following Fidel Castro's so-called "revolution."

According to the text cited by Reuters, "After North Korea, Cuba is the largest contributor of foreign troops to Russia's aggression, with an estimated 1,000 to 5,000 Cubans fighting in Ukraine." The diplomatic cable asserted that the Cuban government has failed to protect its citizens from being used as pawns in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, accusing Miguel Díaz-Canel of politically, militarily, and propagandistically aligning with the Kremlin.

Diplomatic Pressure and Political Messages

As reported by Reuters, the Trump administration aims to weaken the overwhelming majority that annually supports Cuba's resolution at the UN General Assembly. In 2024, 187 countries voted in favor, with only the United States and Israel opposing, and Moldova abstaining. This year, Washington seeks to decrease that margin and expose what it perceives as the "hypocrisy" of the Cuban regime, which presents itself as a victim of sanctions while allegedly collaborating with Vladimir Putin's military apparatus.

"The Trump Administration will not stand by nor support an illegitimate regime that undermines our national security interests in our region," a State Department spokesperson stated in email comments to Reuters. The cable urged US diplomats to spread details about the recruitment of Cubans for the Russian army, as well as the defense, intelligence, and air transport ties between Havana and Moscow.

From "Neutral" to Complicit

Reuters' report confirmed what various sources have indicated for months: Washington considers it proven that Cuban citizens are involved in the Ukraine war, and that Havana has allowed or even facilitated their recruitment. Recently, Ukrainian officials warned the US Congress about the growing network, which includes recruitment centers in Ryazan, Belarus, and even Cuba, involving Russian and Cuban intermediaries.

The 'I Want to Live' project has published lists with over a thousand names, while Ukrainian military intelligence estimates around 25,000 Cubans have been recruited since 2023. "Havana cannot claim ignorance. In a country where no one travels without state control, silence is complicity," a European diplomatic source told Forbes.

Cuban Government's Reaction

So far, Cuba's Permanent Mission to the UN has not responded to the accusations. On September 27, Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla condemned what he called the "genocidal blockade" by the United States, accusing Washington of using the drug trafficking issue as a "ridiculous pretext" to maintain its aggression against Cuba and Venezuela. However, the State Department cable maintains that the Cuban resolution wrongly blames the United States for the island's economic crisis, attributing it instead to "the corruption and incompetence of the regime itself."

Washington Escalates Accusations: From Illegal Recruitment to State-Sponsored Human Trafficking

The US's hardening stance extends beyond diplomacy. The State Department's latest Trafficking in Persons Report (TIP 2025) has gone a step further by officially categorizing the recruitment of Cubans for Russia's war in Ukraine as a state-sponsored form of trafficking. The document, published in late September, asserted that the Cuban regime actively facilitated the departure of its citizens for military exploitation, expediting passport issuance, omitting exit stamps, and allowing thousands of young people to travel with "tourism" visas to Russia and Belarus, where they were contracted by the Russian army.

According to the report, more than 1,000 Cubans signed contracts with the Russian Armed Forces between June 2023 and February 2024, many under false promises of work or residency, while others were lured by salaries of up to $2,000 per month, an unattainable figure in Cuba's economy. The State Department claimed that, similar to international medical missions, this military recruitment system is part of a state network of control and exploitation, where the Cuban state "uses mechanisms of coercion, document retention, and deception" for political and economic gain.

"The novelty is clear: what was once called 'recruitment networks' is now considered state policy. It's no longer about isolated criminal activities but direct governmental complicity," an expert told CiberCuba. Including the Cuban case in TIP 2025 as a state form of human trafficking represents an unprecedented escalation in accusations against Havana and bolsters the diplomatic arguments Washington has presented to its allies at the United Nations.

Under this new light, merely denouncing private recruitment networks is insufficient: the document demands investigating official responsibilities, ensuring victim reparations, and eliminating migration restrictions that enable this type of exploitation. As in previous reports, the Cuban regime has dismissed the accusations as "political slander," but this time the evidential weight and legal classification in TIP 2025 weaken its defensive narrative. What was once seen as a propaganda maneuver now becomes a formal accusation of state complicity in human trafficking for military purposes.

While the regime insists on its victim narrative, Washington's message points in another direction: Cuba is no longer a neutral actor but an operational ally of Russia in its war against Ukraine. For the first time in decades, this accusation threatens to break the nearly unanimous consensus Havana maintained at the United Nations.