An outdated Soviet-era Lada automotive drives previous a truck belonging to a non-public Cuban firm (mipyme) parked in entrance of a gasoline station with an IsoTank of imported gas in Havana on March 19, 2026.
Adalberto Roque | Afp | Getty Pictures
A Russian oil tanker carrying a humanitarian cargo of 100,000 tons of crude oil arrived in Cuba on Monday, in keeping with Russian state information outlet RIA Novosti, citing the nation’s Ministry of Transport.
The sanctioned Anatoly Kolodkin vessel was mentioned to be ready to unload shortly after U.S. President Donald Trump mentioned he had “no downside” with a Russian crude tanker delivering gas to Cuba.
Trump’s feedback appeared to mark an abrupt change in coverage given his administration had imposed an efficient oil blockade in opposition to Havana.
Chatting with reporters aboard Air Power One on Sunday, Trump mentioned: “If a rustic needs to ship some oil into Cuba proper now, I’ve no downside with that, whether or not it is Russia or not.”
The cargo of crude oil is seen as one thing of a lifeline to the Caribbean nation, which is going through its greatest check for the reason that collapse of the Soviet Union amid a deepening vitality disaster.
Cuba had been closely depending on oil provides from Venezuela, nevertheless it has successfully been minimize off since early January when the U.S. launched a rare navy operation to depose Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
The Trump administration subsequently threatened to impose tariffs on any nation that despatched crude to Cuba, prompting the likes of Mexico to halt shipments. The Kremlin has beforehand shrugged off Trump’s tariff threats, mentioning that Washington and Moscow “haven’t got a lot commerce proper now.”
Cuba’s President Miguel Díaz-Canel mentioned final week that the island hadn’t acquired oil shipments in additional than three months. The communist-run nation, which has mentioned it’s holding talks with the U.S., has sought to dramatically enhance its solar energy technology amid the continued gas scarcity.
The island of roughly 10 million folks has confronted a sequence of energy blackouts in current weeks and the United Nations has warned that Cuban hospitals have been struggling to keep up emergency and intensive care companies.
“Cuba is completed, they’ve a nasty regime and so they have very dangerous and corrupt management and whether or not or not they get a ship of oil it isn’t going to matter,” Trump mentioned Sunday.
“I want letting it in, whether or not it is Russia or anyone else, as a result of the folks want warmth and cooling and all the different issues that you simply want,” he added.