“The possibility of resuming flights will be addressed once the situation with kerosene supplies is normalized,” the Kremlin says
By EFE/14ymedio
HAVANA TIMES — Russian airlines on Sunday, February 22, declared the repatriation operation concluded for the nearly 4,300 tourists stranded in Cuba due to the energy crisis caused by the embargo imposed by the United States on the island. “Airlines have completed the repatriation flights of Russian tourists from Cuba,” the Ministry of Transport reported in a statement on Telegram.
The last plane landed at 17:27 local time at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport, which had to limit the number of flights due to Ukrainian drone attacks.
It was a flight operated by Rossiya (Aeroflot Group) that departed from Varadero—one of the favorite tourist destinations among Russians—and marked “the final flight within the framework of the campaign that began on February 13.”
In total, according to the Ministry, “nearly 4,300 tourists” were repatriated from Varadero, Havana, Holguin, and Cayo Coco on nine flights.
“The possibility of resuming flights will be addressed once the situation with kerosene supplies is normalized,” it added.
On February 11, the Russian government recommended that tour operators cease selling travel to Cuba, after which airlines announced they would temporarily suspend flights.
With 131,882 travelers to Cuba in 2025, Russia is the island’s second-largest source of tourists, after Canada (754,010), which in turn completed on Friday the repatriation of its nearly 28,000 tourists.
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez addressed the energy crisis this week in Moscow with Russian leader Vladimir Putin and his counterpart Sergey Lavrov. “You know our position on this. We do not accept anything similar,” Putin said at the start of the meeting.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed that the meeting discussed the concrete assistance Moscow can provide to Havana under current conditions.
Earlier, Lavrov and Rodríguez called for dialogue with the United States, urging it to abandon its plans for a naval blockade of Cuba.
Moscow recently announced that it is in contact with Cuban authorities and that oil supplies to the Communist Party regime are being planned—something that has not occurred since the shipment of 100,000 tons of crude in February 2025.
First published in Spanish by 14ymedio and translated and posted in English by Havana Times.
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