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The Russian tanker Universal, sanctioned by the United States, the European Union, and the United Kingdom, is sailing through the North Atlantic towards the Caribbean and is approximately 15 days away from Cuba, according to data from marine tracking platforms consulted this Tuesday.
The ship, which does not have a declared final destination in the automatic identification systems, would be the second shipment of Russian fuel to the island, following the arrival of the oil tanker Anatoly Kolodkin at the port of Matanzas on March 31 with 730,000 barrels of crude oil.
"Given your profile, there is a high probability that your destination is Cuba," stated EFE Jorge Piñón, a researcher at the Energy Institute of the University of Texas.
The Universal belongs to the Russian state shipping company Sovcomflot, the same company that operated the first shipment of Russian oil to Cuba with the Anatoly Kolodkin, which is also sanctioned by the West.
The tanker, specialized in the transportation of petroleum products and chemical derivatives, was built in 2009, measures 183 meters in length, and has a deadweight capacity of 50,923 tons.
The ship departed in early April from a port in the Baltic Sea and last Wednesday crossed the English Channel escorted by a Russian frigate, a move intended to prevent issues with British authorities during transit.
Just a few days before that transit, the Russian Energy Minister, Serguéi Tsiviliov, had publicly announced a second shipment of fuel to Cuba during the Energoprom-2026 forum held in St. Petersburg on April 2, while Anatoly Kolodkin was still unloading in Matanzas.
"A Russian ship has broken the blockade. A second ship is currently being loaded, and we will not leave the Cubans in trouble," declared Tsiviliov at that forum.
The shipment from Anatoly Kolodkin, however, only covered between seven and ten days of supply on the island, which needs between 90,000 and 110,000 barrels daily but only produces around 40,000.
Cuba's government denounces the "energy blockade" by the United States
The Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez published a message on X this Tuesday, accusing the U.S. government of making contradictory statements about oil supply to Cuba.
Rodríguez claims that the intention of the Donald Trump administration is to "create confusion in order to continue preventing the entry of fuels into Cuban territory."
The Cuban regime classifies Washington's measures as an "energy blockade" of extraterritorial reach that "intimidates, pressures, and extorts those who trade sovereignly with Cuba."
Meanwhile, between February and March, over 2.5 million dollars worth of gasoline and fuel oil were exported from the United States to Cuba, supposedly for the private sector.
The fuel crisis in Cuba is deepening
The Cuban energy crisis abruptly escalated starting on January 3, 2026, when the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro by U.S. forces interrupted the flow of Venezuelan oil that had supported the island for more than twenty years.
Mexico also suspended its fuel sales to Cuba on January 27, 2026, leaving the regime without its two main external suppliers simultaneously.
Miguel Díaz-Canel himself acknowledged after the arrival of the first Russian shipment that the fuel "will help in the coming weeks," but he admitted that "it is not enough."
Experts warn that Cuba would need between 8,000 and 10,000 million dollars in investment to modernize its energy infrastructure and sustainably overcome the crisis, while the national economy is experiencing a contraction of 15% between 2020 and 2025.
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