Trump Says He Has “No Problem” With Russian Oil Tanker Reaching Cuba

President Donald Trump said Sunday he has “no problem” with a Russian oil tanker delivering oil to Cuba, even as a U.S. pressure campaign has choked the island’s fuel supply, according to CBS News and Al Jazeera. “If a country wants to send some oil into Cuba right now, I have no problem whether it’s Russia or not,” Trump said, per CBS News, which carried Associated Press reporting. Al Jazeera quoted him as saying, “If a country wants to send some oil into Cuba right now, I have no problem, whether it’s Russia … and if other countries want to do it.”

According to the AP, Trump spoke to reporters aboard Air Force One and said: “We have a tanker out there. We don’t mind having somebody get a boatload because they need… they have to survive.” The AP said he was asked about a New York Times report that the tanker would be allowed through. He dismissed the idea that the shipment helps Russian President Vladimir Putin. “It doesn’t help him. He loses one boatload of oil, that’s all it is,” Trump said, per the AP. “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.”

The tanker, the Anatoly Kolodkin, carries about 730,000 barrels of oil, according to CBS News and the AP; Al Jazeera later gave the same cargo figure. The AP said the vessel is sanctioned by the United States, the European Union and the United Kingdom over the war in Ukraine, and that tracking data showed it off the eastern tip of Cuba Sunday night. CBS News’s updated version reported that Russia’s Transport Ministry said Monday it had arrived at Matanzas carrying “humanitarian supplies,” while shipping data cited by AFP showed it off Cuba’s northeast coast and it was not clear whether it had docked. Experts say the shipment could produce about 180,000 barrels of diesel, enough to meet Cuba’s daily demand for nine or ten days, the AP reported; that figure was not independently confirmed.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Monday that Russia had discussed the shipment with the United States beforehand and that “Russia considers it its duty not to stand aside, but to provide the necessary assistance to our Cuban friends,” according to the AP.

The AP said the administration has come at Cuba more aggressively than any recent U.S. government, effectively cutting off key oil shipments in an effort to force regime change, and that the blockade has had devastating effects on civilians. Island-wide blackouts have compounded years of crisis, and the lack of gasoline and basic resources has crippled hospitals and cut public transport, the AP reported. Al Jazeera, citing the United Nations, reported that Cuba had three nationwide grid collapses in March. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Al Jazeera on Monday that the United States has done “nothing punitive” against the Cuban government and that the blackouts “have nothing to do with us,” saying Cuba’s own system is to blame.

Trump also said Cuba is “next.” Al Jazeera quoted him saying, “And Cuba’s next, by the way, but pretend I didn’t say that, please.” The AP quoted him saying, “Cuba’s a mess. It’s a failing country, and they’re going to be next,” and, “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.” The AP noted that Cuba has long been at the heart of a geopolitical tug-of-war between the U.S. and Russia.