The Trump administration has formally told Congress that Cuba helped supply Russia with up to 5,000 fighters for its war against Ukraine, while also providing "diplomatic and political support for Moscow," Axios reports. The five-page unclassified report, transmitted to key congressional committees on 8 April, is the most explicit public statement yet that Washington holds the Cuban regime directly responsible.
"Cuban nationals have emerged as one of the largest identifiable groups of foreign fighters supporting Russian military operations in Ukraine," the report states. Although it stops short of concluding that Havana formally dispatched fighters, it says "there are significant indicators that the regime knowingly tolerated, enabled, or selectively facilitated the flow."
Ukrainian intelligence sources separately estimate that several thousand Cuban nationals are currently deployed directly to the front, Axios reported. Euromaidan Press has previously reported that as many as 25,000 Cubans may have been recruited in total, though Ukrainian military intelligence puts the current figure at 10,000–15,000, with most coerced through deception or false promises of non-combat roles.
Havana's denials don't hold up
Cuba's government has repeatedly claimed it is cracking down on illegal recruitment. It announced a criminal investigation in 2023, ultimately prosecuting nine cases involving 40 defendants. The State Department is not convinced. "The regime's opaque judicial system leaves those assertions unverifiable," the report states. A State Department spokesperson told Axios: "The Cuban regime has failed to protect its citizens from being used as pawns in the Russia-Ukraine war."
Cuba's ambassador to Moscow, Julio Garmendía Peña, had already provided an unintentionally clarifying statement in 2023: Havana opposes illegal recruitment, he said, but has no objection to Cubans who volunteer to sign contracts with the Russian army.
"We have nothing against the Cubans who want to sign a contract and legally take part in this operation with the Russian army. But we oppose illegality, and these operations are not within a legal framework," Peña said.
Andrii Yusov, spokesperson for Ukrainian military intelligence, argued the scale of recruitment made state complicity the only plausible explanation: in a totalitarian system with pervasive security services, mass enlistment of fighters for a foreign war does not happen without official sanction or deliberate inattention.
The tanker that complicated the announcement
The congressional report arrived two weeks after an episode that cast its conclusions in an awkward light. On 31 March, a sanctioned Russian tanker, the Anatoly Kolodkin, docked at Cuba's Matanzas terminal carrying roughly 700,000 barrels of crude—the island's first major oil delivery in three months. The vessel is sanctioned by the US, the EU, and the UK over Russia's war in Ukraine.
700,000 barrels of Russian oil arrived in Cuba: Kremlin keeps island’s lights, as its mercenaries bolster war ranks
The Trump administration, which had imposed a fuel blockade on Cuba as part of a broader pressure campaign, allowed the shipment to proceed. Trump said he had no objection to countries sending oil to Cuba for humanitarian reasons.
"If a country wants to send some oil to Cuba right now, I have no problem with that. People need heat, cooling, and all the other necessities," he said.
Kyiv has been tracking Cuba's role closely. In October 2025, Ukraine voted against a UN resolution condemning the US embargo on Cuba for the first time—a pointed signal of frustration with Havana's contribution to Russia's war effort.
