Belarus sends 30 tons of powdered milk to children's hospitals in Havana

The regime of Alexandr Lukashenko delivered 30 tons of powdered milk and nearly four tons of medications in Havana intended for the William Soler University Pediatric Hospital and the Pediatric Cardiocenter of the same name.

The Belarusian ambassador Vitali Barchuk presided over the handover ceremony on November 5 and noted that for Belarus, remaining indifferent in the face of the difficult situation in Cuba is not an option.

The supplies were delivered to the Ministry of Public Health. The first deputy minister of Public Health, Tania Margarita Cruz, expressed gratitude for the shipment and described it as a "symbol of humanity in the midst of the difficult circumstances facing the country."

Cruz took the opportunity to denounce the economic embargo of the United States on Cuba and emphasized that the blackouts, due to the fuel crisis, impact the preservation of medications and the performance of surgeries in the country's hospitals.

The delivery occurs during the worst healthcare crisis in Cuba in decades. The survival rate of children and young people with cancer dropped from 85% to 65%, a decrease of 20 percentage points attributed by the government itself to the shortage of chemotherapeutic agents.

The president of the Cuban Society of Hematology alerted in October that the survival rate of children with leukemia could be below 50%, compared to historical levels close to 90%.

Since 2025, Minsk has sent several shipments of humanitarian aid to Cuba, focused on basic food and medical supplies.

In May 2026, Lukashenko declared to the Cuban Vice President Salvador Valdés Mesa that Belarus was willing to do "everything it can" for Cuba.

In April 2026, Belarus extended the trade exchange mechanism with Cuba through which Havana supplies medicines and biotechnology in exchange for machinery and medical devices.

The Minister of Public Health, José Ángel Portal Miranda, acknowledged in February 2026 that the Cuban healthcare system was "on the brink of collapse."

Out of the 395 nationally produced medications in the essential medicine list, 300 were unavailable in October due to a shortage of raw materials. More than 3,000 patients were waiting for chemotherapy in May due to a lack of cytostatics, and the bone marrow transplant program remained halted.