An outdated Soviet-era Lada automotive drives previous a truck belonging to a non-public Cuban firm (mipyme) parked in entrance of a fuel station with an IsoTank of imported gas in Havana on March 19, 2026.
Adalberto Roque | Afp | Getty Photos
U.S. President Donald Trump mentioned he has “no downside” with a Russian crude tanker delivering gas to Cuba, showing to reverse course over his administration’s oil blockade because the island grapples with a deepening vitality disaster.
Talking to reporters aboard Air Pressure 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.”
His feedback come as a Russian-flagged oil tanker, the sanctioned Anatoly Kolodkin, makes its method to Cuba carrying an estimated 730,000 barrels of crude oil.
The tanker is reportedly anticipated to succeed in port on Monday and is seen as one thing of a lifeline to the Caribbean nation, which is going through its greatest check because the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Cuba had been closely depending on oil provides from Venezuela, nevertheless it has successfully been lower off since early January when the U.S. launched a rare army 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, declaring 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 era amid the continued gas scarcity.
The island of roughly 10 million folks has confronted a sequence of energy blackouts in latest 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 they usually have very unhealthy and corrupt management and whether or not or not they get a ship of oil it is not going to matter,” Trump mentioned Sunday.
“I choose letting it in, whether or not it is Russia or anyone else, as a result of the folks want warmth and cooling and the entire different issues that you simply want,” he added.
