A Russian tanker reached Cuba on Monday in what was set to be the first oil delivery to the Communist-run island in nearly three months amid a U.S. blockade, and Moscow said it would stand by its friends by working to secure further supplies.
The U.S. cut off Venezuela's oil exports to Cuba after toppling Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Jan. 3, and U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to slap punishing tariffs on any other country that sent crude to Cuba. But Trump on Sunday signalled he was reversing course and expressed sympathy for the Cuban people's need for energy.
"We have a tanker out there. We don't mind having somebody get a boatload because they need ... they have to survive," Trump told reporters as he flew back to Washington.
When asked if a New York Times report that the tanker would be allowed to reach Cuba was true, Trump said: "I told them, if a country wants to send some oil into Cuba right now, I have no problem whether it's Russia or not."
On Monday, Russia's Transport Ministry said the oil tanker Anatoly Kolodkin arrived at the Cuban port of Matanzas carrying "humanitarian supplies" of about 730,000 barrels of oil.
The vessel is sanctioned by the United States, the European Union and the United Kingdom following the war in Ukraine.
The Kremlin said it had raised the issue of the tanker during talks with the U.S. but that Russia felt it had a duty to support "friends" in Cuba.
"This issue was indeed raised in advance during contacts with our American partners," Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
Trump, whose government has come at its Caribbean adversary more aggressively than any U.S. government in recent history, has effectively cut Cuba off from key oil shipments in an effort to force regime change. The blockade has had devastating effects on the civilians, whom Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio say they want to help, leaving many desperate.
Cuba has not received an oil tanker in three months, according to President Miguel Diaz-Canel, and its energy crisis has caused blackouts across the country of 10 million.
Health officials say the crisis has increased the mortality risk for cancer patients, especially children. Cuba became dependent on the Soviet Union for oil after its communist revolution in 1959, and needs imported fuel oil and diesel to generate power.
Asked if further Russian shipments would follow, Peskov said: "In the desperate situation that Cubans now find themselves in, this, of course, cannot leave us indifferent, so we will continue to work on this."
LSEG ship-tracking data showed the Russian tanker had left the Russian Baltic Sea port of Primorsk on March 8 and was now moving along Cuba's northern shore.
Cuba has long been at the heart of a geopolitical tug-of-war between the U.S. and Russia, dating back decades. Trump on Sunday dismissed the idea that allowing the boat to reach Cuba would help Russian President Vladimir Putin.
"It doesn't help him. He loses one boatload of oil, that's all it is. If he wants to do that, and if other countries want to do it, it doesn't bother me much," Trump said. "It's not going to have an impact. Cuba's finished. They have a bad regime. They have very bad and corrupt leadership and whether or not they get a boat of oil, it's not going to matter."
He added: "I'd prefer letting it in, whether it's Russia or anybody else, because the people need heat and cooling and all of the other things."
