Russian airlines ended this Sunday the repatriation operation of the almost 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 repatriation flights for Russian tourists from Cuba,” the Russian Ministry of Transport reported in a statement in Telegram.
The last plane landed at 5:27 p.m. (Moscow time) at Sheremetyevo airport, which had to limit the number of flights today due to attacks by Ukrainian drones.
It was a flight from the Rossía company (Aeroflot Group) that took off from the Varadero resort. —popular tourist destination among Russians—and which represented “the final flight within the framework of the campaign that began on February 13.”
In total, according to the Russian ministry, almost 4,300 Russian tourists were repatriated from Varadero, Havana, Holguín and Cayo Coco on nine flights.
“The possibility of resuming flights will be addressed after the normalization of the situation with supplies,” he added.
On February 11, the Russian Government recommended that tour operators stop selling trips to Cuba, after which the airlines announced that they would temporarily suspend flights.
With 131,000 travelers to Cuba in 2025, Russia is the second largest source of tourists to that island, after Canada, which in turn completed the repatriation of its almost 28,000 tourists on Friday.
Russia announces temporary cessation of flights to Cuba due to the fuel crisis on the island
Moscow in the face of the Cuban crisis
The Cuban Foreign Minister, Bruno Rodríguez, addressed the energy crisis in Moscow this week with the Russian leader, Vladimir Putin, and with his colleague, Sergei Lavrov. “You know our position on the matter. We do not accept anything similar,” Putin said at the beginning of the meeting.
He added that the Russian Foreign Ministry, with whose head the Cuban minister met hours before, had already stated the Russian position in an “open, clear and unequivocal” way.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov confirmed that the meeting addressed the concrete help that Moscow can provide to Havana under current conditions. Previously, Lavrov and Rodríguez called for dialogue with the United States, asking it to renounce its plans for a naval blockade of Cuba.
Moscow recently announced that it is in contact with the Cuban authorities and that the supply of oil to the island is planned, something that has not happened since the shipment of 100 thousand tons of crude oil in February 2025.
Peskov previously assured that Moscow has been in contact with the Cuban authorities and that different energy support options are being evaluated, although he avoided offering public details for “understandable reasons.” the newspaper reported Granma.
“During all these days we have been in contact with our Cuban friends and we have been discussing options to help them,” declared Peskov, stressing that energy cooperation is part of the historical relationship between both countries.
Flights and fuel
The situation of lack of fuel in the Caribbean country has led other airlines to suppress, although temporarily, flights to Cuba.
This week, World2Fly, from the Iberostar tourism group, announced that it will eliminate from mid-March to early July one of its two weekly frequencies with which it operates between Madrid and Havana.
The company, based in Palma, explained to EFE that the current situation in the country in relation to fuel has generated adjustments in its operations and is implementing measures aimed at guaranteeing “the continuity and proper functioning” of its operations.
Thus, World2Fly, which offers two weekly frequencies between Madrid and Havana —on Wednesdays and Sundays—will temporarily suppress the latter starting next March 15 to resume it on July 5.
Hotel closures
The Cuban government also began to close some hotels at the beginning of this month and transfer tourists to other facilities as part of the package of measures adopted in response to the US oil siege.
The deputy prime minister, Oscar Pérez-Oliva Fraga, previously stated on state television that a tourism plan was designed to reduce energy consumption, compact tourist facilities and take advantage of the high season that is currently taking place.
Days ago, tourism workers in Matanzas were being relocated to other vacant positions in the municipalities. In that province, due to the impossibility of traveling from the most distant territories to the Hicacos Peninsula or to the main municipality, the municipal labor directorates evaluate several job offers for them, indicates a report from Giron.
The situation undoubtedly mainly affects some tourist facilities located in the resort of Varadero and the keys in the north of the island.
The tourism sector in Cuba, once considered the engine of the island’s economy, confirmed its crisis in 2025 by closing with its worst record of international travelers (1.8 million) since 2002, not counting the years of covid-19.
Cuba has been suffering a serious energy crisis since mid-2024 due to the frequent breakdowns of its obsolete thermoelectric plants and the lack of foreign currency to import the fuels necessary to fuel distributed generation.
EFE/OnCuba.
