For months, reports about foreign fighters in Ukraine indicated to North Korea as the main source of soldiers sent to support Russia. Then there was official confirmation by both nations. Quietly, however, that balance is shifting in surprising ways. On the board of the war in Eastern Europe, another country begins to displace Pyongyang in the role of largest supplier of troops to Moscow, an unexpected turn that reveals both the fragility of Russia and the depth of its authoritarian alliances.
The Cuban front. What began as a regional invasion has transformed into a global war, in which Russia not only faces Ukraine and its Western allies, but also mobilize a network of regimes to sustain the war effort. Among them, Cuba emerges as an unexpected actor: according to Ukrainian estimates, up to 25,000 Cubans They could join the Russian front, becoming the largest foreign force in Ukraine, above the North Korean contingents.
For the Kremlin, the usefulness of this formula it is evident: The casualties of foreign fighters do not generate internal protests, do not require compensation to Russian families and reduce the political cost of the conflict. In a country with more than one million estimated casualtiesattract soldiers overseas It is also a matter of strategic survival.
A formula that is difficult to reject. The main motivation for many Cuban recruits is simple: economic. On an island mired in one of the worst crises in recent decades, where the average salary barely exceeds 20 dollars a month, the promises of charge $2,000 a month They fight any ideological objection. Some accept the contracts convinced, others are deceived with job offers in construction or factories, to discover upon arriving in Russia that their destination is the battle front.
Analysts like Cristina López-Gottardi they point out that the economic attraction is irresistible, but they also highlight the political dimension: Havana obtains income from remittances from combatants and consolidates its alignment with Moscow, presenting it as a gesture of “revolutionary loyalty” and, incidentally, a symbolic challenge to Washington. Experts point out that the regime seeks reinforce your narrative anti-American, presenting participation as an act of internationalist solidarity, although in practice it is a source of foreign currency in times of hardship.
Mercenaries, coercion and globality. The Cuban presence is part of a broader trend: the growing Russian dependence on foreign fighters. According to intelligence data, in 2025 almost half of the prisoners captured in Ukraine They were not Russian citizenswhen in 2022 they barely represented 1%. From Africans recruited under threats of deportation, until deceived students With false job offers in “shampoo factories”, including North Koreans sent as cannon fodder, Moscow turns to a whole mosaic of forced soldiers or mercenaries.
In this sense, the Cuban contribution not only strengthens the Russian lines, but also magnify the image of a war waged by an international authoritarian axis that includes Iran, Venezuela, North Korea and now Cuba, sharing weapons, technology and experience on a battlefield converted into a laboratory for modern warfare with drones, electronic warfare and new combat tactics.
Cuba as a diplomatic target. Cuban involvement in Ukraine has not gone unnoticed by the United States. The Trump administration has decided to use it as a central argument in his diplomatic offensive against Havana at the UN. An internal State Department cable, dated October 2, instructed US delegations to pressure allies to vote against the traditional annual resolution demanding an end to the US embargo on Cuba.
Year after year, the measure has had overwhelming support (in 2024, 187 countries voted in favor and only the United States and Israel against), although Washington hopes to reduce that margin by presenting evidence that the Miguel Díaz-Canel regime has become in active accomplice of Russian aggression, with between 1,000 and 5,000 fighters deployed on the front. In the documents is underlined that Cuba “has failed to protect its citizens from being used as pawns” in the war, and the regime is accused of “undermining democracy” in the region, particularly through its alliance with Venezuela.
The embargo and sanctions. Washington’s strategy seeks to disarm the Havana narrative, which presents the embargo as the root of all their evils. The diplomatic cable instructs to highlight the corruption and incompetence of the Cuban government, in addition to highlighting that the economic problems do not derive from the sanctions, but from its mismanagement. Trump, upon his return to the presidency, has hardened the restrictions: has reinstated Cuba to the list of countries sponsoring terrorism, has further limited financial transactions and has sanctioned third countries that collaborate with Cuban doctors abroad.
Faced with this pressure, the Cuban regime accuses Washington of seeking a pretext for aggression and even instrumentalizing the anti-drug fight in the Caribbean as an excuse to increase tension. That said, the backdrop seems different: the combination internal collapse and military alliance with Moscow places Cuba at the epicenter of the geopolitical struggle between Washington and the authoritarian bloc.
Military school. Beyond the diplomatic balances, what worries many analysts is that the war in Ukraine has become an involuntary academy for allied armies of Russia. Every foreign contingent that steps on the front learn first hand the techniques of the first great drone war in history: from swarm operations to electronic warfare.
As warns Bill Colefounder of Peace Through Strength Institute“the real danger is not the thousands of Cubans or North Koreans sent, but what they learn and then export to other conflicts in Latin America, Africa or Asia.” This transfer of war knowledge turns war into a multiplier of global instability, with authoritarian regimes absorbing tactics and adapting them to their own scenarios.
The Cuban paradox. The participation of thousands of Cubans in the Ukrainian war also reveals a paradox: while for the Havana regime it represents both a source of foreign currency and a reaffirmation of its anti-American identity, for Moscow it is a cheap solution and politically comfortable to internal wear and tear, and for Washington an opportunity to intensify diplomatic pressure and justify its embargo.
However, the most disturbing thing is that, on this global board, Cuban combatants not only die in distant trenches: they also embody the conversion of the Ukrainian conflict into a training camp that reinforces military cooperation between the autocracies of the new century.
Image | BORNRaibel Palacio, Ministry of Defense of Ukraine
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