A Russian oil tanker, the Anatoly Kolodkin, arrived in Matanzas, east of Havana, in the early hours of Tuesday carrying about 730,000 barrels of crude — the first crude shipment to Cuba since the Trump administration tightened pressure on Venezuela, Cuba’s main supplier.
The arrival comes despite an expanded U.S. sanctions campaign that has threatened countries supplying oil to Cuba with penalties. The vessel itself is subject to sanctions from the United States, the European Union and the United Kingdom related to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but was nevertheless permitted to dock.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the decision to allow the ship was made on a case-by-case basis for humanitarian or other reasons and emphasized that U.S. sanctions policy has not undergone a formal change.
Cuba is facing severe fuel and food shortages that have deepened its economic crisis and led to multiple nationwide blackouts, including two in March. Cuba’s Energy and Mines Minister Vicente de la O Levy thanked the Russian government and people on X, calling the delivery a valuable shipment amid the island’s difficult energy situation.
Analysts estimate the cargo could be refined into roughly 180,000 barrels of diesel, enough to meet Cuba’s daily diesel demand for about nine to ten days. Cuban Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernandez de Cossio wrote on X that the tanker’s arrival underscores the hardships Cubans endure under what he described as a brutal siege and an example of imperialist cruelty toward a nation that resists domination.
Edited by: Alex Berry