In a dramatic escalation of diplomatic tensions, the Trump administration has launched a global campaign to reframe the debate over its long-standing embargo on Cuba, tying Havana’s fate to the war raging thousands of miles away in Ukraine. According to a U.S. State Department cable dated October 2, 2025, and obtained by Reuters, American diplomats have been instructed to lobby against a United Nations resolution calling for an end to the embargo by highlighting allegations that Cuba is now a major supplier of foreign fighters to Russia’s military effort.
The cable claims that between 1,000 and 5,000 Cuban nationals are fighting alongside Russian troops in Ukraine, making Cuba the second-largest contributor of foreign fighters to Moscow’s army after North Korea. If these numbers are accurate, it marks a stunning shift in Cuba’s global role and escalates the stakes of Washington’s diplomatic offensive.
“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 State Department cable asserts, as reported by Reuters. The document instructs U.S. diplomats worldwide to warn foreign governments that Cuba’s alleged support for Moscow represents a direct threat to both regional and global stability.
This year’s U.N. resolution, a non-binding motion urging the United States to lift its decades-old embargo on Cuba, is expected to pass with overwhelming support—as it has every year since 1992. In 2022, 187 countries voted in favor, with only the U.S. and Israel in opposition. While the annual vote is largely symbolic (only the U.S. Congress can end the embargo), it has become a key diplomatic battleground, with Washington now seeking to erode the margin of Cuba’s global support.
The Trump administration’s strategy marks a sharp departure from past U.S. messaging. In previous years, American diplomats focused on Cuba’s human rights record or highlighted humanitarian exemptions for food and medicine. This year, however, the approach is more explosive, linking Cuba directly to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and positioning the embargo as a tool to counter aggression and defend democratic values.
According to BBC, U.S. officials are now asking allies not only to vote against the resolution but to consider abstaining or even being absent from the vote—moves that would still be counted as diplomatic wins for Washington. The aim, the cable notes, is to “significantly reduce the number of nations supporting Cuba in the General Assembly.”
Despite the seriousness of the allegations, Cuban officials at the United Nations have not issued any public statements in response as of October 7, 2025. Requests for comment from Cuba’s U.N. mission have gone unanswered. Havana, for its part, has previously denied any involvement in the recruitment of mercenaries, describing those fighting in Ukraine as victims of “human trafficking networks.”
The U.S. campaign comes amid a hardening of policy toward both Cuba and Russia since President Donald Trump’s return to office in January 2025. The administration has reinstated Cuba on the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism, tightened financial and travel restrictions, and imposed penalties on third-country nationals who host Cuban medical workers—a major source of revenue for the island nation. At the same time, the White House has authorized intelligence sharing with Ukraine and threatened new sanctions against buyers of Russian oil, signaling a more confrontational approach to both adversaries.
U.S. officials argue that the current economic crisis gripping Cuba—marked by severe shortages, collapsing infrastructure, and rampant inflation—is the result of government mismanagement and corruption, not American sanctions. As the State Department cable bluntly puts it, the U.N. resolution “incorrectly blames the United States for Cuba’s problems,” instead attributing them to Havana’s “own corruption and incompetence.”
Reports of Cuban nationals fighting in Ukraine have been circulating for months. According to The Guardian, Ukrainian officials have warned U.S. lawmakers that Moscow is actively recruiting Cuban mercenaries by offering financial incentives and promises of Russian citizenship. This, they say, is part of a deliberate strategy by Russia to supplement its front lines with foreign manpower as the war drags on. Alongside Cuba, North Korea has also been identified as a growing military supporter of Moscow, supplying artillery shells, short-range missiles, and even limited deployments of personnel to Russian-occupied territories.
The idea of a “foreign legion” propping up Vladimir Putin’s war effort is as much about symbolism as it is about numbers. Still, the U.S. is seizing on the allegations to reshape international opinion at the U.N., hoping to paint Cuba not as a victim of American sanctions but as an active participant in global destabilization.
Tensions are not limited to Europe and the U.N. In the Caribbean, the U.S. has recently carried out strikes on suspected Venezuelan drug boats, further inflaming relations in the region. The State Department cable accuses Havana of “undermining democracies in the Western Hemisphere” through its alliance with Venezuela, a charge that Cuban officials vehemently reject. On October 4, 2025, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez took to the U.N. podium to denounce U.S. actions, urging the international community to “stop the United States from starting a war in the region.” He dismissed Washington’s justification for Caribbean military operations as a “crude and ridiculous pretext for aggression,” warning that U.S. policies risk sparking a wider regional conflict.
The Trump administration’s pivot away from human rights arguments and toward allegations of Cuban military involvement in Ukraine is seen by some analysts as a more persuasive, high-stakes approach. As the annual U.N. vote approaches later this month, diplomats on all sides are bracing for a contentious showdown—one that will test not just the limits of American influence, but the shifting allegiances of a world grappling with new and old rivalries alike.
For now, the fate of the embargo remains unchanged. Only Congress can end the Cold War-era policy, which has now entered its seventh decade. But the diplomatic clash over Cuba’s alleged role in Russia’s war highlights how deeply interconnected today’s conflicts have become, with repercussions that stretch far beyond any single battlefield or island nation.
