The United States, together with 18 other democracies, distanced themselves from the Cuban dictatorship and its falsehoods about the U.S. embargo. The total vote was 165 in favor of the resolution, seven against, 12 abstentions, and eight non votes. The dictatorship, and their allies tried to spin this non-binding resolution, a propaganda exercise, repeated annually since 1992, but this time was different.
It was a fiasco.
First, the day before Ambassador Mike Waltz, U.S. Representative to the United Nations factually and truthfully outlined the moral case for U.S. sanctions on the Cuban dictatorship, and rebutted the distortions, and lies circulated by Havana. Ambassador Bruno Rodriguez, the foreign minister for the Cuban dictatorship, interrupted Ambassador Waltz’s address to the UN, but came away from the encounter small, and diminished. Watch it for yourself here.
Today, the UN voted on Cuba’s annual resolution against the U.S. embargo. Ukraine voted no this year. Our reasons are grave: Cuban Government has become a strategic asset for Russia, actively supporting its war of aggression against a sovereign European nation. Thousands of Cuban soldiers are fighting against Ukraine as part of Russian invasion forces and gaining combat experience in the process, and Havana is becoming increasingly engaged in military & intel activities that threaten international security. Russia is using Cuba to evade sanctions adopted to force it to stop its invasion. This isn’t about the Cuban people; it’s about countering authoritarian expansion. Cuban regime must change its destructive policies.
These are the reasons why Argentina, Hungary, Israel, North Macedonia, Paraguay, and Ukraine joined with the United States to vote against the resolution. These are also the reasons why Albania, Bosnia, Costa Rica, the Czech Republic, Ecuador, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Moldavia, Morocco, and Romania abstained this time.
In addition there were eight countries that did not vote for whatever reason and they are: Bulgaria, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Madagascar, Myanmar, Naura, Syria, and Venezuela.
The so-called “high point” in these non-binding votes was in 2016 when both the United States, and Israel abstained, and no one voted against the resolution. The vote was 191 in favor, 0 against, and 2 abstentions. This was during the Obama thaw with Havana.
This time was different, but not only due to the vote itself, but also the debate, and the action that took place on the same day.
Today, while the World was focused on Havana’s non-binding propaganda exercise, Kyiv took concrete action in protest to Cuban soldiers waging war on Ukraine for Putin.
Ukraine closed its embassy in Havana and downgraded diplomatic ties with Cuba due to the high number of Cubans recruited to fight in Russia’s illegal war, announced Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha earlier today, but there was additional damning evidence that he cited signaling a comment by Miguel Diaz-Canel when he visited Moscow.in 2024. “We remember the Cuban President’s wish of ‘success’ to Putin in his war of aggression against Ukraine. We heard it well,” Sybiha wrote.
Vladimir Putin and Miguel Diaz-Canel meet in Moscow, and the Cuban dictatorship’s president wished the Russian Federation success in their war of aggression against Ukraine. Presidential Press & Information Office
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These were not good days for Ambassador Bruno Rodriguez, and the dictatorship in Havana.
Vaclav Havel’s maxim uttered in his important essay, The Power of the Powerless, was seen in action over these days. “If the main pillar of the system is living a lie, then it is not surprising that the fundamental threat to it is living in truth.”
Truth and facts exposed the Cuban dictatorship before the international community, and left it shaken.
These were bad days for the Cuban dictatorship, but great days for Cuban dissidents, and for freedom in New York City and in Havana.
United24, October 29, 2025
Ukraine Calls Cuba “Complicit in Putin’s War,” Closes Embassy in Havana
By Roman Kohanets, News Writer and Tetiana Frolova, News Writer
Ukraine has closed its embassy in Havana and downgraded diplomatic relations with Cuba, citing Havana’s inaction over the recruitment of Cuban citizens to fight for Russia in its war against Ukraine, the Kyiv Independent reported on October 30.
According to Ukrainian intelligence cited by the Kyiv Independent, thousands of Cuban nationals have signed contracts to serve in Russia’s armed forces, with many directly involved in combat operations on Ukrainian soil.
Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha announced the decision in a post on X, saying Kyiv’s move follows “serious reasons” linked to Cuba’s role in enabling Russian military recruitment.
“We remember the Cuban President’s wish of ‘success’ to Putin in his war of aggression against Ukraine. We heard it well,” Sybiha wrote.
Ukraine’s vote against the United Nations General Assembly resolution on the “Necessity of ending the US embargo against Cuba” marked a sharp policy shift.
The resolution, adopted on October 23 with 165 votes in favor, 17 against, and 12 abstentions, saw Ukraine listed among those opposing it.
“The unwillingness of Havana to stop the massive deployment of its nationals in the Russian war against Ukraine constitutes complicity in aggression and must be condemned in the strongest terms.” Sybiha added.
Earlier, it was reported that Ukrainian intelligence said more than a thousand Cuban nationals are already fighting in Russian units against Ukraine and that the total number of recruited Cuban mercenaries could reach up to 20,000.
Officials in Kyiv argued that this scale of recruitment would not be possible without approval from the Cuban regime and called for countries enabling such recruitment to be treated as accomplices.
UN condemns US embargo on Cuba for a 33rd year, but Washington’s stand draws bit more support
UNITED NATION (AP) — The U.N. General Assembly voted overwhelmingly Wednesday to condemn the U.S. economic embargo of Cuba for a 33rd year. Yet the vote, as Hurricane Melissa tore through the island nation, softened Washington’s isolation on a long-standing issue in the Caribbean while new friction grows around the American military buildup there.
The vote was 165-7, with 12 abstentions. Last year, it was 187-2, with “no” votes from the United States and Israel and one abstention. This year, countries including Argentina, Ukraine and Hungary also opposed the measure. Such resolutions are not legally binding but reflect world opinion
“The United States government is satisfied to see so many countries send the regime a message that the international community will no longer tolerate” its activities, Ambassador Jeff Bartos said, after he expressed concern for Cuba and other countries in the storm’s path.
In an interview with The Associated Press on Monday, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez said the U.S. mounted a pressure campaign to influence the vote.
Rodríguez said his government had heard from other countries, mainly in Europe, that the State Department was encouraging them to vote against the resolution. In response, a State Department spokesperson said Wednesday that “the Cuban regime does not deserve the backing of America’s democratic allies.”
“For years, the Cuban dictatorship has used its annual anti-embargo resolution at the U.N. as a propaganda tool to distract from its own corruption, incompetence, and brutal repression against the Cuban people,” the statement continued.
Before the vote, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., Mike Waltz, described the annual exercise as “political theater” by Cuba to “cast itself as the victim of aggression while plainly describing itself as ‘the enemy of the United States.’”
“I would suggest that our member states stop appeasing the regime with their votes and instead use this vote to send the world a message,” Waltz said during debate Tuesday. He said the vote also could signal to Cuba not to “blame all of its economic problems on the United States.”
In a taste of the sour relations between the countries, Rodríguez formally interrupted Waltz’s remarks with a “point of order” to complain that they were “uncivilized, crude and gross.”
“Mr. Waltz, this is the United Nations General Assembly. It is not a Signal chat. Nor is it the House of Representatives,” the Cuban envoy said.
“I am well aware of the location in which we are speaking. And this is also not a communist illegitimate legislature in Havana,” Waltz responded.
Waltz, a former Republican congressman, served as President Donald Trump’s national security adviser earlier this year before unintentionally adding a journalist to a private Signal chat used to discuss sensitive military plans. Waltz has insisted the chat met government cybersecurity standards.
Rodríguez, in the interview, said, “We cannot underestimate the importance, the impact, of the powerful message year after year by the General Assembly, which is the most democratic, representative body of the international community.” The resolution, he added, “is not binding, but it is powerful.”
The U.S. objects to the description of the economic restrictions as a blockade.
The vote happened not only as the hurricane raged but as the Trump administration intensifies its campaign against drug trafficking in the waters off South America. That military buildup, Rodríguez said Wednesday, is “aggressive, extraordinary and unjustified.”
The moves have strained ties with U..S allies in the region and opened speculation that Washington aims to oust Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. The U.S. has charged him with narcoterrorism, while he has accused the U.S. of trying to destabilize his country and gain control of its oil reserves.
Cuba, meanwhile, has struggled since 2020 with an economic and energy crisis. Its gross domestic product has shrunk, and its 10 million residents have endured blackouts, food shortages and inflation. There have been waves of protests, and hundreds of thousands of Cubans have migrated, many to the United States.
Cuban officials have blamed the economic squeeze on COVID-19 shutdowns, stricter U.S. sanctions and other factors. The island’s communist government says U.S. sanctions cost the country more thnan $7.5 billion between March 2024 and February 2025, substantially more than the year before.
The embargo was imposed in 1960 after Fidel Castro led a revolution that toppled dictator Fulgencio Batista and nationalized properties belonging to U.S. citizens and corporations.
In 2016, Cuban President Raul Castro and Democratic President Barack Obama officially restored relations. That year, the U.S. abstained, for the first time, on the General Assembly resolution calling for an end to the embargo.
Obama’s successor, Republican Donald Trump, sharply criticized Cuba’s human rights record. The U.S. again voted against the resolution in 2017 and ever since.
Sanctions increased significantly during Trump’s first term, continued under his successor, Democratic President Joe Biden, and were tightened again after Trump returned to office this year.
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Associated Press writer Cristiana Mesquita in Havana contributed to this report.
https://apnews.com/article/cuba-embargo-us-un-general-assembly-9c48b48775f0089ba7c0156590c3a86e