Russian tanker brings oil to Cuba as US eases blockade

The Russian oil tanker Anatoly Kolodkin arrives at the oil terminal in the port of Matanzas, northwestern Cuba, early on March 31, 2026. The Anatoly Kolodkin, a tanker under US sanctions carrying 730,000 barrels of crude, is set to deliver the first crude shipment to Cuba since January after Washington gave the crisis-hit island a reprieve from an effective fuel blockade. (Photo by Yamil LAGE / AFP) A Russian oil tanker arrived in a Cuban port on Tuesday to deliver the first crude shipment to the island since January after Washington gave the crisis-hit country a reprieve from an effective fuel blockade.

The Anatoly Kolodkin, a tanker under US sanctions, was seen entering the port of Matanzas, east of Havana, after sunrise to deliver 730,000 barrels of crude, AFP journalists said. US President Donald Trump’s decision to let Russia deliver the oil avoids a confrontation with Moscow and provides temporary relief to a country that has endured blackouts, fuel rationing and dwindling public transportation. “It’s great that the country is receiving oil because we need it for the crisis we are facing,” Yoanna Rivero, a 49-year-old pharmacy worker who was exercising near the port, told AFP.

Felipe Serrano, a 76-year-old security guard, was waiting for the Russian ship to arrive. “This is crucial for us to be able to survive because the country has paralyzed,” he said. Analysts, however, said the shipment would only give Cuba a brief respite.

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“It can offer temporary breathing room, but it does not come close to resolving the scale of the deficit the country is facing,” Ricardo Torres, a Cuban economist at American University in Washington, told AFP. “It is clearly not enough,” he said, noting that Cuba’s power problems are “structural rather than episodic.” Trump, who has mused about “taking” communist-ruled Cuba, said Sunday that he did not object to Russia or others sending oil to the island because Cubans “have to survive.” The White House denied that there was any change to US policy.

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