THE Russian Transport Ministry said today that the oil tanker Anatoly Kolodkin arrived at the Cuban port of Matanzas carrying “humanitarian supplies” of about 730,000 barrels of oil.

The arrival of the Russian ship, which is under sanctions by the United States, the European Union and Britain following the war in Ukraine, will help Cuba to avoid running out of fuel for several weeks, according to the New York Times.

Island-wide blackouts have hit the Caribbean island in recent weeks after the far-right president of the US, Donald Trump, threatened to slap steep tariffs on any country providing or selling oil to Cuba.

This followed an illegal and unprovoked attack on Venezuela by US forces on January 3, during which 100 people were killed and its president Nicolas Maduro and first lady Celia Flores were kidnapped.

Venezuela had previously provided large quantities of oil to Cuba.

Cubans were already grappling with years of an illegal blockade by the US.

Experts say the anticipated shipment could produce about 180,000 barrels of diesel, enough to feed Cuba’s daily demand for nine or 10 days.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia had discussed the shipment beforehand with the US.

Asked if there would be more shipments, Mr Peskov said: “This desperate situation that Cubans now find themselves in cannot leave us indifferent, so we will continue to work on this.”

President Trump said on Sunday night that he had “no problem” with the Russian delivery.

He told reporters: “We have a tanker out there. We don’t mind having somebody get a boatload because they need to survive.”

Mr Trump said: “I told them, if a country wants to send some oil into Cuba right now, I have no problem whether it’s Russia or not.”

The statement marks a significant shift in rhetoric from Washington’s previous hard-line stance on the delivery of oil into Cuba.

Mr Trump on Sunday dismissed the idea that allowing the boat to reach Cuba would help Russian President Vladimir Putin.

He said: “It doesn’t help him. He loses one boatload of oil, that’s all it is. If he wants to do that, and if other countries want to do it, it doesn’t bother me much. 

He insisted: “It’s not going to have an impact. Cuba’s finished.

“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.”