Volunteers from Cuba and other allies called to fight Ukraine

Russian television host Vladimir Solovyov, one of Vladimir Putin’s “confidants,” called the formation of an “international coalition” of Russia’s allies in the fight against Ukraine indispensable.

Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela, and Iran were among the countries Solovyov alluded to.

“I don’t understand why the Americans, even when it comes to Grenada, always improvise an international coalition,” he said on Wednesday, September 14, on his “Late Night with Vladimir” program, alluding to the U.S. military intervention in the small Caribbean island to reverse a coup backed by Cuba and the then-Soviet Union.

In landing in Grenada, the Americans were supported by Barbados, Jamaica, and other Caribbean nations.

“Why would we deny this?” he added, asserting that “allies” would be ready to send their troops to support Russia in a counteroffensive against Ukraine in Donetsk.

“There are units in Syria that are very well trained by us, there are people in Africa who support us, there is Venezuela, Nicaragua, Cuba, Iran, and North Korea,” said Solovyov, whose program is broadcast by the state television channel Russia-1.

“If volunteers from all over the world are going to Donetsk to fight, why shouldn’t we allow them to organize and build an international corps?” he added.

Solovyov is considered a leading propagandist for Putin’s government and is one of those sanctioned by the EU following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

In his call for a coalition for Russia’s “allies,” the ideologue forgot to mention that Cuba, unlike North Korea, Belarus, Syria, and Eritrea, did not vote against the UN resolution condemning Putin’s military operation but merely abstained.

Faced with the advance of Ukrainian forces, which say they have liberated some 8,500 square kilometers, 388 localities, and 150,000 people in the eastern region since September 6, Russian troops have hastily withdrawn from dozens of villages in eastern Ukraine, leaving behind large quantities of military equipment.

According to U.S. figures, the Russians have suffered 75,000 casualties in seven months of fighting. The war, described by Putin as a simple “military operation,” has not gone as the Kremlin had hoped, and criticism of the Russian army’s lack of preparedness is growing.