For months, hundreds of Cubans have quietly left the island to fight for Russia in its war in Ukraine, chasing promises of money and Russian citizenship from shadowy online recruiters, family members told CNN.
Across much of Cuba, the economy has ground to a standstill as the communist-run island reels from a sharp drop in tourism, spiking inflation and renewed US sanctions. In places like Santa Clara, a city of around 250,000 people with frequent hours-long daily blackouts and more horses and carts on the road than cars, there was seemingly an unlimited number of disaffected men to recruit.
Men like Miguel, who in July traveled to Russia and soon after was on the front lines of the war with Ukraine, his mother Cecilia told CNN.
"My son made about 2,000 pesos a month," working odd jobs in Santa Clara, she said. "You can't buy a carton of eggs with that now. He just wanted to make our lives better."
Cecilia said she was afraid of Russian reprisals against her son and asked CNN not to identify either one of them, and use pseudonyms instead of their real names.
Zelensky arrives in New York to address world leaders at UN General Assembly. Here's what to know
From CNN staff
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky arrived Monday in New York for the United Nations General Assembly. He is set to meet with several world leaders to push for support as Ukraine presses ahead with its counteroffensive against Russian forces.
Zelensky is also scheduled to meet with President Joe Biden and US lawmakers in Washington, DC, later this week.
Meanwhile, fighting continues in the eastern part of the country after Ukrainian troops recaptured two key villages near Bakhmut.
Here's what else to know:
UN gathering: Zelensky will address the General Assembly in person this week, but first he visited Monday with Ukrainian soldiers who are undergoing rehabilitation in New York. Among various world leaders, Zelensky will meet with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva for the first time in person on Wednesday, a spokesperson said. The war in Ukraine is expected to be a significant item on the agenda at the assembly of world leaders.
Pledged aid: Germany will provide Ukraine with an additional 400 million euros ($427 million) worth of weapons and aid, according to the defense minister. Notably, the package will not include long-range Taurus missiles, Boris Pistorius said. Ukraine has been urging Germany to provide the weapons.
Situation near Bakhmut: The situation in the eastern part of Ukraine "remains difficult" even after Ukrainian troops recaptured the villages of Klishchiivka and Andriivka near the eastern city of Bakhmut, the Commander of Land Forces, Oleksandr Syrskyi, said. He said Russia does "not abandon its intentions to resume offensive actions" in the area.
Preparing for winter: Ukraine is anticipating ramped-up Russian attacks on energy infrastructure as the weather gets colder, the CEO of Ukraine's largest private energy company said. The company, DTEK, is working on building a 500-megawatt wind power plant to boost the country’s energy sector, but CEO Maxim Timchenko said Ukraine needs air defenses to protect power stations.
Agricultural lawsuit: Kyiv has filed a lawsuit against Poland, Hungary and Slovakia over their ban on imports of Ukrainian agricultural products, Economy Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko said Monday. The three countries are worried their farmers will be undercut by a bottleneck of cheap Ukrainian grain. On Friday, the EU announced plans to suspend a temporary ban placed on the export of Ukrainian grain to a select number of countries in Eastern Europe.
Zelensky expected to meet with Brazilian president for the first time in person
From CNN's Duarte Mendonca
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will meet with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva for the first time in person on Wednesday, a spokesperson said. The leaders are both in New York for the United Nations General Assembly meetings.
The meeting will take place at 4 p.m. ET, the Brazilian Presidency spokesperson Cynthia Ribeiro said. The spokesperson gave no further details.
People familiar with Zelensky's plans previously said he has several meetings with other world leaders during his time in New York.
More broadly, the Ukrainian president is planning to use an in-person appearance at the annual meeting to appeal for more support for Ukraine as it continues to wage a counteroffensive against Russia.
CNN's Jennifer Hansler, Kevin Liptak and Melanie Zanona contributed reporting to this post.
3 hr 50 min ago
Ukraine commander hails recent gains in the east but says overall situation in area "remains difficult"
From CNN's Jessie Gretener, Andrew Carey, and Olga Voitovych
Ukraine's Commander of Land Forces, Oleksandr Syrskyi, released a video hailing the soldiers who recaptured the villages of Klishchiivka and Andriivka near the embattled eastern city of Bakhmut, saying their advance had succeeded in breaking a Russian defensive line.
"I am on the front line with our soldiers who are holding the line and continuing to move forward. I thanked them for their steady advance and the liberation of Klishchiivka and Andriivka from the occupiers," Syrskyi said in a video posted on Telegram on Monday.
"As a result of the successful actions of our troops, the enemy's defense line was broken, which it tried to close by throwing all available reserves into the battle," Syrskyi said on Telegram in a separate post, adding that Russian forces had not given up trying to recapture the lost territory, conducting “numerous counterattacks from different directions.”
He cautioned more widely that the "overall situation in the eastern sector remains difficult.”
“The enemy does not abandon its intentions to resume offensive actions in the Kupiansk and Lyman directions,” he said, referencing two towns both held by Russia for six months before being liberated by Ukraine almost exactly a year ago.
3 hr 54 min ago
Ukraine files lawsuit against 3 EU countries for banning its agricultural products
From CNN's Jessie Gretener, Mariya Knight and Olga Voitovych
Ukraine filed lawsuits against Poland, Hungary, and Slovakia over a ban on imports of its agricultural products, Economy Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko said in a statement Monday.
"It is crucially important for us to prove that individual member states cannot ban imports of Ukrainian goods. That is why we are filing lawsuits against them with the World Trade Organization (WTO). At the same time, we hope that these countries will lift their restrictions and we will not have to settle the matter in courts for a long time,” Svyrydenko said.
The lawsuit comes after the European Union said on Friday that it planned to suspend a temporary ban on the export of Ukrainian wheat, maize, rapeseed and sunflower seed to Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia. The measure was put in place to counter the risk of farmers in these countries being undercut by a bottleneck of cheap Ukrainian grain.
However, Poland, Hungry, and Slovakia said they would defy it. CNN has reached out to Poland’s Ministry of Agriculture, Hungary’s Ministry of Agriculture, and Slovakia’s Ministry of Agriculture for comment.
Ukraine calls this situation “a violation by the three EU countries of their international obligations.” It asked the EU members “to coordinate and harmonize trade policy, as it is within the exclusive competence of the EU," according to the statement.
Ukraine trade representative Taras Kachka told Politico that such acts of defiance show a lack of unity within the bloc and pose a “systemic concern."
“I think that all the world should see how member states in the EU behave towards trade partners and their own Union, because it can influence other states as well,” Kachka said.
Spain's agriculture minister has warned that the move by Poland, Slovakia and Hungary may be illegal.
"The fact that any member country — I'm not judging one member country, but any member country — takes unilateral action restricting what is the access to the single market, seems to me something that is out of the law," Luis Planas Puchades told reporters on his way into a meeting of EU agriculture ministers in Brussels.
Puchades said it will be for the European Commission to judge whether the unilateral bans are illegal, adding that commission representatives will brief the ministers on potential follow up action on Monday afternoon.
CNN's Niamh Kennedy contributed reporting to this post.
4 hr 4 min ago
Analysis: Zelensky will attend the UNGA in person for the first time. Here's what to expect
Analysis from CNN's Richard Roth
The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) begins today and 140 heads of state and government are scheduled to attend. Six vice presidents, four deputy prime ministers and over 30 ministers of state and chiefs of delegations will also stand at the rostrum to deliver remarks for their nations.
This year the topics at the two-week summit appear more numerous, volatile and hard-to-solve than before any other UN General Assembly: Russia’s war in Ukraine, lethal floods in Libya, multiple coups on the African continent, North versus South economic funding, violent crisis in Haiti, and climate change, to name a few.
Potentially weakening the impact of the event itself is the fact that US President Joe Biden is to be the only leader of the permanent five members of the UN Security Council to attend.
In a first for the annual summit, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky will be attending in person. Previously, he has appeared on video monitors in the General Assembly Hall. He is also expected to speak with Biden in Washington on Thursday.
UN to tackle grain deal with Russia: At a special Ukraine meeting at the Security Council table on Wednesday, prepare for Zelensky to take on Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, should he attend this ministerial meeting. There are also private one-on-one sessions between UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and Russia, Ukraine and Turkey.
The UN would like to get Russia back into the Black Sea grain deal. But Russia and Ukraine will not meet together here in New York.
“It is extremely important to fight those that are abusing their authority to limit democracy,” Guterres told reporters last week. But one Security Council diplomat has said Russia already trampled on the UN charter by invading neighboring Ukraine.
Kyiv has filed a lawsuit against three EU member states — Poland, Hungary and Slovakia — over their ban on imports of Ukrainian agricultural products.
The situation in eastern Ukraine "remains difficult" even after Ukrainian troops recaptured the villages of Klishchiivka and Andriivka, which are near Bakhmut, a top commander said.
For months, hundreds of Cubans have quietly left the island to fight for Russia in its war in Ukraine, chasing promises of money and Russian citizenship from shadowy online recruiters, family members told CNN.
Across much of Cuba, the economy has ground to a standstill as the communist-run island reels from a sharp drop in tourism, spiking inflation and renewed US sanctions. In places like Santa Clara, a city of around 250,000 people with frequent hours-long daily blackouts and more horses and carts on the road than cars, there was seemingly an unlimited number of disaffected men to recruit.
Men like Miguel, who in July traveled to Russia and soon after was on the front lines of the war with Ukraine, his mother Cecilia told CNN.
"My son made about 2,000 pesos a month," working odd jobs in Santa Clara, she said. "You can't buy a carton of eggs with that now. He just wanted to make our lives better."
Cecilia said she was afraid of Russian reprisals against her son and asked CNN not to identify either one of them, and use pseudonyms instead of their real names.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky arrived Monday in New York for the United Nations General Assembly. He is set to meet with several world leaders to push for support as Ukraine presses ahead with its counteroffensive against Russian forces.
Zelensky is also scheduled to meet with President Joe Biden and US lawmakers in Washington, DC, later this week.
Meanwhile, fighting continues in the eastern part of the country after Ukrainian troops recaptured two key villages near Bakhmut.
Here's what else to know:
UN gathering: Zelensky will address the General Assembly in person this week, but first he visited Monday with Ukrainian soldiers who are undergoing rehabilitation in New York. Among various world leaders, Zelensky will meet with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva for the first time in person on Wednesday, a spokesperson said. The war in Ukraine is expected to be a significant item on the agenda at the assembly of world leaders.
Pledged aid: Germany will provide Ukraine with an additional 400 million euros ($427 million) worth of weapons and aid, according to the defense minister. Notably, the package will not include long-range Taurus missiles, Boris Pistorius said. Ukraine has been urging Germany to provide the weapons.
Situation near Bakhmut: The situation in the eastern part of Ukraine "remains difficult" even after Ukrainian troops recaptured the villages of Klishchiivka and Andriivka near the eastern city of Bakhmut, the Commander of Land Forces, Oleksandr Syrskyi, said. He said Russia does "not abandon its intentions to resume offensive actions" in the area.
Preparing for winter: Ukraine is anticipating ramped-up Russian attacks on energy infrastructure as the weather gets colder, the CEO of Ukraine's largest private energy company said. The company, DTEK, is working on building a 500-megawatt wind power plant to boost the country’s energy sector, but CEO Maxim Timchenko said Ukraine needs air defenses to protect power stations.
Agricultural lawsuit: Kyiv has filed a lawsuit against Poland, Hungary and Slovakia over their ban on imports of Ukrainian agricultural products, Economy Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko said Monday. The three countries are worried their farmers will be undercut by a bottleneck of cheap Ukrainian grain. On Friday, the EU announced plans to suspend a temporary ban placed on the export of Ukrainian grain to a select number of countries in Eastern Europe.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will meet with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva for the first time in person on Wednesday, a spokesperson said. The leaders are both in New York for the United Nations General Assembly meetings.
The meeting will take place at 4 p.m. ET, the Brazilian Presidency spokesperson Cynthia Ribeiro said. The spokesperson gave no further details.
People familiar with Zelensky's plans previously said he has several meetings with other world leaders during his time in New York.
More broadly, the Ukrainian president is planning to use an in-person appearance at the annual meeting to appeal for more support for Ukraine as it continues to wage a counteroffensive against Russia.
CNN's Jennifer Hansler, Kevin Liptak and Melanie Zanona contributed reporting to this post.
Ukraine's Commander of Land Forces, Oleksandr Syrskyi, released a video hailing the soldiers who recaptured the villages of Klishchiivka and Andriivka near the embattled eastern city of Bakhmut, saying their advance had succeeded in breaking a Russian defensive line.
"I am on the front line with our soldiers who are holding the line and continuing to move forward. I thanked them for their steady advance and the liberation of Klishchiivka and Andriivka from the occupiers," Syrskyi said in a video posted on Telegram on Monday.
"As a result of the successful actions of our troops, the enemy's defense line was broken, which it tried to close by throwing all available reserves into the battle," Syrskyi said on Telegram in a separate post, adding that Russian forces had not given up trying to recapture the lost territory, conducting “numerous counterattacks from different directions.”
He cautioned more widely that the "overall situation in the eastern sector remains difficult.”
“The enemy does not abandon its intentions to resume offensive actions in the Kupiansk and Lyman directions,” he said, referencing two towns both held by Russia for six months before being liberated by Ukraine almost exactly a year ago.
Ukraine filed lawsuits against Poland, Hungary, and Slovakia over a ban on imports of its agricultural products, Economy Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko said in a statement Monday.
"It is crucially important for us to prove that individual member states cannot ban imports of Ukrainian goods. That is why we are filing lawsuits against them with the World Trade Organization (WTO). At the same time, we hope that these countries will lift their restrictions and we will not have to settle the matter in courts for a long time,” Svyrydenko said.
The lawsuit comes after the European Union said on Friday that it planned to suspend a temporary ban on the export of Ukrainian wheat, maize, rapeseed and sunflower seed to Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia. The measure was put in place to counter the risk of farmers in these countries being undercut by a bottleneck of cheap Ukrainian grain.
However, Poland, Hungry, and Slovakia said they would defy it. CNN has reached out to Poland’s Ministry of Agriculture, Hungary’s Ministry of Agriculture, and Slovakia’s Ministry of Agriculture for comment.
Ukraine calls this situation “a violation by the three EU countries of their international obligations.” It asked the EU members “to coordinate and harmonize trade policy, as it is within the exclusive competence of the EU," according to the statement.
Ukraine trade representative Taras Kachka told Politico that such acts of defiance show a lack of unity within the bloc and pose a “systemic concern."
“I think that all the world should see how member states in the EU behave towards trade partners and their own Union, because it can influence other states as well,” Kachka said.
Spain's agriculture minister has warned that the move by Poland, Slovakia and Hungary may be illegal.
"The fact that any member country — I'm not judging one member country, but any member country — takes unilateral action restricting what is the access to the single market, seems to me something that is out of the law," Luis Planas Puchades told reporters on his way into a meeting of EU agriculture ministers in Brussels.
Puchades said it will be for the European Commission to judge whether the unilateral bans are illegal, adding that commission representatives will brief the ministers on potential follow up action on Monday afternoon.
CNN's Niamh Kennedy contributed reporting to this post.
The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) begins today and 140 heads of state and government are scheduled to attend. Six vice presidents, four deputy prime ministers and over 30 ministers of state and chiefs of delegations will also stand at the rostrum to deliver remarks for their nations.
This year the topics at the two-week summit appear more numerous, volatile and hard-to-solve than before any other UN General Assembly: Russia’s war in Ukraine, lethal floods in Libya, multiple coups on the African continent, North versus South economic funding, violent crisis in Haiti, and climate change, to name a few.
Potentially weakening the impact of the event itself is the fact that US President Joe Biden is to be the only leader of the permanent five members of the UN Security Council to attend.
In a first for the annual summit, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky will be attending in person. Previously, he has appeared on video monitors in the General Assembly Hall. He is also expected to speak with Biden in Washington on Thursday.
UN to tackle grain deal with Russia: At a special Ukraine meeting at the Security Council table on Wednesday, prepare for Zelensky to take on Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, should he attend this ministerial meeting. There are also private one-on-one sessions between UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and Russia, Ukraine and Turkey.
The UN would like to get Russia back into the Black Sea grain deal. But Russia and Ukraine will not meet together here in New York.
“It is extremely important to fight those that are abusing their authority to limit democracy,” Guterres told reporters last week. But one Security Council diplomat has said Russia already trampled on the UN charter by invading neighboring Ukraine.
