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Two vessels heading for energy-starved Cuba carrying Russian oil and fuel are due to arrive as early as next week in defiance of US President Donald Trump’s energy embargo, according to maritime intelligence companies.
If the ships arrive, they will be Cuba’s first energy shipments in three months. The island was plunged into a nationwide blackout when its entire grid collapsed on Monday before gradually regaining power on Tuesday, deepening a bitter economic crisis.
The Hong Kong-flagged Sea Horse, believed to be carrying some 27,000 tonnes of Russian gas, was headed towards the island after appearing to divert course last month. The ship is estimated to arrive in Cuba on Monday, Samir Madani, co-founder of maritime intelligence company TankerTrackers.com, told the FT.
The Russian-flagged Anatoly Kolodkin, carrying some 100,000 metric tons of crude — equivalent to 725,000 to 728,000 barrels depending on oil grade — was estimated to arrive in Cuba on April 4, Madani added.
Earlier this week, Trump predicted he would “have the honour of taking Cuba in some form”, having previously floated a “friendly takeover” of the Caribbean nation.
“Whether I free it, take it, I think I could do anything I want with it, if you want to know the truth,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Monday. “They are a very weakened nation right now.”
Speculation is mounting that Trump is trying to force the exit of President Miguel Díaz-Canel, who last week confirmed Cuba is talking to the US administration in a bid to end the energy blockade.
Cuba’s last delivery was an oil shipment from Mexico on January 9, but Mexico has since appeared to cave to pressure from Trump to halt further shipments. No deliveries have come since December from longtime ally Venezuela after US forces swooped in to seize leader Nicolás Maduro.
On Tuesday, Díaz-Canel warned that any “external aggressor” would meet “impregnable resistance”.
“The United States publicly threatens Cuba, almost daily, with overthrowing the constitutional order by force,” Díaz-Canel wrote on X on Tuesday. “They openly plan to seize the country, its resources, property and even the economy they are trying to suffocate, to force our defeat.”
Russia’s foreign ministry said on Tuesday that “Russia reaffirms its unwavering solidarity with the government and fraternal people of Cuba”.
The Sea Horse’s fuel was identified as Russian by intelligence company Kpler, according to a Bloomberg News report.
The Anatoly Kolodkin, a Russian-flagged vessel, is carrying Russian Urals oil, Kpler said.
Cuba produces only about 40 per cent of the oil needed to supply national demand and has long relied on imports from friendly nations — including the Soviet Union during the cold war — to power homes and the tourism and agricultural industries.
Venezuela had been the country’s main benefactor, sending oil in exchange for doctors and counter-intelligence operatives until US forces arrested Maduro on January 3. Cuba would also re-sell some of those deliveries, giving it desperately needed foreign exchange.
The island, which sits just 145km off the Florida Keys, is mired in a humanitarian crisis that has been deepened by the US energy crunch. Hospitals have cancelled surgeries, while food distribution and rubbish collection services have been disrupted. Airlines, deprived of fuel, have suspended flights.
The communist regime’s official mouthpiece, Granma, has highlighted an initiative to install solar panels, calling it “the light and energy that they can’t blockade”.
The government has also invited Cuban exiles to invest in and own businesses on the island, as part of a larger bid to boost the fledgling private sector. A wide-ranging US embargo on Cuba, which has long been supported by much of the diaspora, however, would still prevent broader trade and investment.
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