Sanctioned Russian Tanker En Route to Cuba with Oil

A Russian tanker loaded with crude oil is steaming toward Cuba, potentially challenging recent U.S. sanctions aimed at blocking fuel supplies to the island nation amid its deepening energy crisis. The state-owned vessel Anatoly Kolodkin, which departed from Primorsk, Russia, on March 8 carrying approximately 730,000 barrels of crude, is tracking toward the port of Matanzas, according to maritime analytics firms Kpler and Vortexa. The ship, sanctioned by the United States, the United Kingdom, and the European Union, passed through the English Channel under observation from Britain's Royal Navy before continuing solo across the Atlantic. It is expected to arrive in about a week.

This development follows the diversion of another tanker, the Hong Kong-flagged Sea Horse, which was carrying around 200,000 barrels of Russian gas oil loaded via a ship-to-ship transfer in the Mediterranean earlier this year. Initially bound for Cuba after lingering in the Atlantic since late February, the vessel changed course on Friday and is now heading to Trinidad and Tobago, per LSEG ship-tracking data. The move leaves Cuba without that immediate supply, exacerbating shortages that have led to...