The North American nation of Cuba has been in the news in recent times not for a good cause, but a bad one.
It was widely reported in the news media that the country had run out of fuel to power its energy infrastructure.
Many international news channels, including the BBC, Reuters, France 24, CNN, and the like, all carried the news.
It was a national emergency.
The reasons for Cuba’s energy challenges are not far-fetched.
The United States had placed sanctions on the country that prevented other nations from supplying it with fuel.
One of Cuba’s key allies—Venezuela, which used to supply the country with fuel—had its support interrupted following the capture of the country’s President by the United States.
Cuba has been experiencing a series of nationwide blackouts as the blockade exacerbated existing fuel shortages.
Recently, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned that severe fuel shortages meant that Cuban hospitals were struggling to maintain emergency and intensive care services.
Cuba’s situation has deteriorated rapidly since January 3, when US forces seized Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro—a staunch ally of the Cuban government—who had been providing the island with oil under highly preferential terms.
Trump also threatened to impose tariffs on any nation sending oil to Cuba. Just a few weeks ago, the US Treasury Department added Cuba to a list of countries barred from receiving oil deliveries from Russia.
However, following the country’s severe fuel shortages that attracted global attention, Russia stepped in to supply the country with the critical resource.
A Russian tanker broke through the fuel blockade of Cuba in front of the United States.
The Russian tanker Anatoly Kolodkin delivered a humanitarian cargo weighing 100,000 tons of oil to Cuba. This is the first successful delivery to the island since the introduction of the strict American blockade.
According to the Russian Ministry of Transport, the ship safely docked at the port of Matanzas on March 31, 2026, after Washington refused to intercept the flight and publicly allowed any countries to help Havana with fuel.
But in an apparent reversal of his strategy, Trump told journalists on board Air Force One recently that he had “no problem” with Russia delivering oil to Cuba.
“If any country wants to supply oil to Cuba at the moment, then I have nothing against it – it doesn’t matter whether it’s Russia or not.
It doesn’t really bother me,” said US President Donald Trump.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration has imposed a fuel blockade on Cuba but granted a waiver to allow this week’s delivery for humanitarian reasons.
As journalists from The New York Times learned, American patrol boats did not receive orders to intercept the tanker, and the US Coast Guard allowed the ship to freely pass along the east coast of the island.
According to experts, the imported 730,000 barrels of oil will be enough to provide Cuba with fuel for at least several weeks.
It remains unclear whether the passage of the Russian vessel means the complete lifting of the blockade of Cuba by the United States, or whether it is only a one-time
humanitarian concession, as back in January, Washington directly threatened secondary sanctions on all countries for any attempts to sell fuel to Havana.
Meanwhile, Reuters reported on April 2, in an article, that Russia has plans to send a second ship carrying oil to Cuba.
The report indicated that the cargo is being loaded.
The Cuban authorities have portrayed the arrival of the Russian tanker as “breaking” the US-imposed oil blockade.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov said that Russia considered it “its duty to step up and provide necessary assistance to our Cuban friends”.
He added that the shipment had been “raised well in advance… with our American counterparts”.
