Cuba's Former Ally Ukraine Downgrades Diplomatic Relations
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha announced on October 29 that his country had decided to close its embassy in Havana and “downgrade our diplomatic ties,” just hours after Ukraine voted against Cuba’s UN resolution to condemn the U.S. embargo.
This marks a huge shift, which cuts against decades of solidarity between the two countries.
In the years following the 1986 Chernobyl explosion, thousands of Ukrainian children affected by the accident received free treatment in Cuba.
The program “Children of Chernobyl” began in 1990. Before then, Cuban doctors visited Ukraine, at the time still part of the USSR.
The first group of 139 kids arrived in Havana in March of that year and was welcomed by Fidel Castro.
They stayed in Tarará, a beach town on the outskirts of Havana, and received treatment at some of Cuba’s top hospitals for many years.
The program survived Ukrainian independence, even decades after the fall of the Soviet Union.
By 2011, more than 20,000 Chernobyl kids – and their children – had received treatment in Cuba.
But the war in Ukraine has reshaped the landscape, with Cuba and Ukraine both becoming more dependent on more powerful countries.
Ukraine has relied heavily on U.S. support in the war, while Cuba, asphyxiated by U.S. sanctions, has increasingly turned to Russia for a lifeline.
During a visit to the Kremlin in 2024, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel “wish[ed] Russia success” in Ukraine.
That was one of the reasons offered by Sybiha for his country’s vote against the Cuban resolution and in favor of U.S. sanctions.
LeoGrande told Belly of the Beast that “Cuba at the United Nations has consistently voted for a diplomatic solution to the conflict and has said in the past that the invasion itself was not truly consistent with international law.”
Sybiha also mentioned “the inaction of Cuba’s authorities in response to massive recruitment of Cuban citizens to the Russian occupation army.”
The U.S. used the presence of Cubans in the conflict to pressure countries into voting against the UN resolution.
Cuba has “categorically rejected” U.S. claims about its alleged involvement in the war in Ukraine and has convicted 26 people of mercenarism since 2023.