Moscow: 'Russian ship arrived in Cuba with oil and humanitarian aid'. Trump: 'But Cuba is finished'

The Russian Ministry of Transport has announced that the Russian tanker Anatoly Kolodkin, carrying 100,000 tonnes of oil and humanitarian aid, has arrived in Cuba. 'The ship is currently awaiting unloading in the port of Mansas,' reads the statement, which was picked up by Russian agencies.

Shortly before, US President Donald Trump had declared that he had 'no problem' with the tanker: 'We have a tanker over there. We don't mind somebody loading one because they need it, they need to survive,' he told reporters on his way back to Washington. Asked if it was true what the New York Times reported, that the tanker would be allowed to reach Cuba, Trump said: 'I told them that if a country wants to send oil to Cuba right now, I have no problem with that, whether it's Russia or not'.

The ship, the Anatoly Kolodkin, is subject to sanctions by the US, EU and UK following the war in Ukraine. Experts estimate that the Russian shipment could produce around 180,000 barrels of diesel, enough to meet Cuba's daily needs for nine to ten days. Trump dismissed the idea that allowing the ship to reach Cuba would help Russian President Vladimir Putin. "It does him no good. He just loses a load of oil, that's all. If he wants to do it, and if other countries want to do it, it doesn't bother me as much." And then: 'It won't have any impact, Cuba is finished. They have a lousy regime. They have a corrupt, lousy leadership, and whether or not they get a shipload of oil will make no difference,' Trump concluded.