US counts up to 5000 Cubans fighting against Ukraine – Reuters

Up to 5,000 Cuban mercenaries are fighting against Ukraine on the side of the Russian Federation, says an internal US State Department telegram seen by Reuters.

According to media reports, the Administration of US president Donald Trump mobilizes American diplomats to lobby against a UN resolution calling on Washington to lift the longstanding embargo on Cuba.

One of the points of this unclassified telegram is that Cuba and its dictator Miguel Díaz-Canel actively support Russia's war against Ukraine.

"After North Korea, Cuba is the largest contributor of foreign troops to Russia's aggression, with an estimated 1000-5000 Cubans fighting in Ukraine ," the document says.

The State Department spokesperson declined to provide additional details about the mercenaries from Cuba. However, Washington is aware of reports that Cubans are fighting alongside Russian troops in Ukraine.

"The Cuban regime has failed to protect its citizens from being used as pawns in the Russia-Ukraine war," the official said.

According to Reuters, in recent weeks, Ukrainian officials have warned U.S. lawmakers about Russia's growing recruitment of Cuban mercenaries for military operations in Ukraine.

Voting for this resolution in the UN may have political weight, but only the US Congress is able to lift the embargo against Cuba, which was imposed after the 1959 communist coup on the island.

The aforementioned resolution has been adopted annually by the UN General Assembly since 1992 with a large majority of votes.

According to a State Department cable, the purpose of the lobbying is to demonstrate the US administration's disagreement by significantly reducing the number of votes in favor of the document.

Since returning to the presidency in January 2025, Trump has doubled sanctions, returned Cuba to the list of state sponsors of terrorism, tightened financial and travel restrictions, and imposed sanctions on third-country nationals who host Cuban doctors.

• In October 2023, the National Resistance Center reported that Russians were massively recruiting Cubans for the war against Ukraine and sending them to the front lines because the occupiers "do not care" about them.
• In July 2024, a Bloomberg interlocutor said that Russia continues to recruit Cubans to participate in the war against Ukraine, despite the goverment's attempts to stop it.