Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky directly mentioned Cuba this Wednesday from the podium of the UN General Assembly, denouncing that Russia is using citizens from 47 countries to fight in the war against Ukraine.
" we know that Russia is using citizens from 47 countries in its war," Zelensky stated during his speech in New York, before listing some of those nations: Ghana, Nepal, Tajikistan, India, Yemen, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Cuba, Belarus, Sudan, and South Africa.
The Ukrainian leader stated that many of those foreigners ended up in Russia through "deceptions and tricks" and issued a direct appeal to the representatives of their respective governments.
"They know what Russia is doing to its people. They are their citizens. Take care of them and don’t let them end up on another front," he asserted.
Zelensky added that Ukraine receives requests to repatriate foreigners captured as prisoners of war and assured that Ukrainian drones have also recorded the presence of non-Russian fighters killed in the battlefield.
"Don't let Putin drag you into this war," he urged the 47 countries.
Cubans recruited by Russia
Just two weeks before Zelenski's speech, Amnesty International published an investigation documenting deceptive, coercive, and exploitative practices used to recruit foreigners into the Russian forces.
The Amnesty International report, based on various sources including interviews conducted in Ukrainian prisoner of war camps between 2024 and 2026, includes testimonies from citizens of Cuba, Brazil, Colombia, Egypt, Sierra Leone, Sri Lanka, Somalia, and South Africa.
The organization concluded that in numerous cases, such practices may constitute human trafficking.
Among the documented mechanisms are false promises of civilian jobs, high salaries, or immigration regularization, as well as coercion of foreigners who were already in Russia.
Amnesty also noted that some recruits were sent to the front with minimal training.
The organization specifically documented cases of Cubans imprisoned in Russia for alleged drug possession, to whom military contracts were offered as an alternative to continuing to serve their sentences.
The regime in Havana, for its part, has repeatedly denied being involved in the recruitment of Cubans for Russia.
More than a thousand Cubans identified
In May 2025, the Ukrainian project "I Want to Live" published the names of at least 39 deceased Cubans during the war.
Subsequently, new lists of alleged deceased have emerged. Ukrainian authorities have provided much higher estimates of the total number of Cubans who would have passed through Russian ranks since 2023, although these figures do not have complete public nominal listings to allow for individual verification.
The official position of Havana has been to deny any state involvement in those networks. In 2025, the Cuban government asserted that the organizations dedicated to recruitment were not based in the country and had no connection whatsoever to the regime.
The report published this month by Amnesty International did not implicate the Cuban state in organizing those networks; instead, it focused its conclusions on the recruitment and exploitation practices associated with Russia.
Zelensky's message now places the issue back on an international stage, this time from the main forum of the United Nations.
"Don't let Russia extinguish its fires, hide its shame, and pay for its madness with the lives of its people," said the Ukrainian president, addressing representatives of the affected countries.
Zelensky's speech once again placed the Cuban government at the center of criticism during the UN General Assembly. The day before, the Cuban delegation led by Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla left the plenary as U.S. President Donald Trump labeled Cuba as an "absolutely failed state" and claimed that the regime "will fall."
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