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Russia has warned that Cuba’s energy crisis is becoming critical, as it accused the United States of using “suffocating measures” against the socialist island-state.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov raised the alarm on Monday, saying Moscow is discussing “possible solutions” to provide Havana with “whatever assistance” it needs.

Cuba is reeling after US President Donald Trump cut off oil shipments from Venezuela, following the abduction of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro by US forces during a bloody night raid in early January.

Trump has also threatened to impose tariffs on other countries, including Mexico, if they continue to ship much-needed fuel to Cuba, which has already suffered under decades of punitive sanctions imposed by Washington.

“The situation is really critical in Cuba,” Peskov told reporters in Moscow.

“The suffocating measures imposed by the United States are causing many difficulties for the country,” he added.

In separate remarks, published on the Russian Foreign Ministry’s website, Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov renewed Moscow’s “solidarity with the people of Venezuela and Cuba”.

“We are convinced that only they can determine their own destiny,” Lavrov said.

Cuba’s crippling fuel shortage amid US attempts to strangle the economy has immobilised the nation, and power plants are struggling to keep the lights on.

The Cuban government has been forced to impose emergency measures, including a four-day work week for state-owned companies, limiting fuel sales, shuttering universities and reducing school hours.

Cuba has also warned international airlines that jet fuel would no longer be available on the island from Tuesday. On Monday, Air Canada announced it was suspending flights to Cuba due to the shortage of aviation fuel.

‘Breaking the political will of the Cuban people’

For weeks, Moscow has railed against Washington’s campaign against Havana.

Russia has called the US moves against Cuba “unacceptable” and warned of a possible humanitarian crisis in the country.

Moscow’s criticism of the US comes as Russia faces condemnation for its continued bombardment of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure as part of its war effort against its neighbour. Russian attacks have left more than a million people without power in freezing temperatures, according to Ukrainian officials.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres had also warned of a humanitarian “collapse” in Cuba if the country’s energy needs go unmet.

On Monday, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez denounced Washington’s “cruel aggression”, which he said was aimed at “breaking the political will of the Cuban people”.

“The situation is tough and will demand great sacrifice,” said Rodriguez, reiterating Cuba’s “willingness to engage in dialogue”, on its own terms.

Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel has said his country is willing to hold talks with the US, but not under pressure.

Trump and his secretary of state, Marco Rubio, the Miami-born son of Cuban immigrants, have made no secret of their desire to bring about regime change in Havana.

Defying Trump, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said that sanctions that harm the people of Cuba were “not right”.

“We will continue supporting them and taking all necessary diplomatic actions to restore oil shipments” to Cuba, Sheinbaum told reporters on Monday.

“You cannot strangle a people like this. It’s very unfair, very unfair.”

Trump referred to Cuba in a recent executive order as “an unusual and extraordinary threat” to US national security, and warned countries that he would impose more tariffs on them if they supplied oil to Cuba.

Mexico was Cuba’s second-largest oil provider after Venezuela.

Here is where things stand on Tuesday, February 10:

Fighting

• Ukraine’s Air Force said Russia launched 11 ballistic missiles and 149 drones against Ukraine overnight. Of the drones launched, 116 were shot down or neutralised, and some missiles were intercepted and did not reach their targets, the Air Force said.

Weapons

• Ukraine and France have agreed to start “large-scale” joint weapons production, Ukrainian Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov announced on the Telegram messaging app, after hosting his French counterpart, Catherine Vautrin, in Kyiv.
• Fedorov did not specify what arms would be produced with France or when manufacturing would be launched.

Politics and diplomacy

• An agreement on ending Russia’s war on Ukraine must also take into consideration security guarantees for Russia, Russian Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Alexander Grushko told the Izvestia media outlet. These guarantees include the rejection of any deployment in Ukraine of troops from NATO states, he said.

Sanctions

• The EU also proposed adding two Kyrgyz banks – Keremet and OJSC Capital Bank of Central Asia – to its sanctions list for providing crypto asset services to Russia, as well as banks in Laos and Tajikistan, while removing two Chinese lenders. If approved, the listed banks would be barred from transactions with EU individuals and companies.
• The EU document proposes the inclusion in the sanctions list of 30 individuals and 64 companies, seeking a freeze on their assets and travel bans. These include Bashneft, a listed subsidiary of Russia’s oil behemoth Rosneft, as well as eight Russian refineries, among them two major Rosneft-controlled plants – Tuapse and Syzran. The proposal stops short of listing Rosneft or Lukoil, already hit by US sanctions.

Sport

• Ukrainian Minister of Sports Matvii Bidnyi has decried actions by the IOC that Kyiv says indicate that the organisation may soon ease restrictions against Russian athletes, allowing them to once again represent their country in future Olympic Games.
• Bidnyi told The Associated Press news agency that any change would be “irresponsible” and appear to condone Russia’s invasion, as the war’s fourth anniversary approaches.

United States President Donald Trump opposes Israel’s annexation of the occupied West Bank, a White House official has said.

“A stable West Bank keeps Israel secure, and is in line with this administration’s goal to achieve peace in the region,” the official said on Monday, according to the Reuters news agency.

The comment from the White House comes amid international outrage after Israel’s far-right finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, and defence minister, Israel Katz, announced new measures on Sunday extending Israeli control over occupied Palestinian territory.

The measures also make it easier for Israelis to acquire land for new settlements, which are illegal under international law.

Eight Muslim-majority countries denounced Israel’s move in a statement on Monday, saying that the “illegal Israeli decisions and measures” are “aimed at imposing unlawful Israeli sovereignty” over Palestinian territory.

Egypt, Indonesia, Jordan, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkiye and the United Arab Emirates said the measures were an attempt at “entrenching settlement activity, and enforcing a new legal and administrative reality in the occupied West Bank, thereby accelerating attempts at its illegal annexation and the displacement of the Palestinian people”.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, the United Kingdom and Spain also joined the rising chorus of condemnation, with the UN chief saying Israel’s actions were “destabilising” and corrosive to the prospects for a two-state solution, according to his spokesman, Stephane Dujarric.

Al Jazeera’s Gabriel Elizondo asked Dujarric in a news conference at the UN headquarters in New York if Guterres considered Israel’s measures a “de facto annexation” of the occupied West Bank.

“These decisions are not moving us in the right direction. They are driving us further and further away from a two-state solution and from the ability of the Palestinian Authority and the Palestinian people to control their own destiny,” Dujarric said.

Elizondo also asked the spokesman what the UN chief could do to deter Israel.

“The secretary-general will continue to advocate for the respect of international law. He’ll continue to push for a two-state solution. But he can’t do it alone. We want others to do so as well,” Dujarric said.

The UK government called on Israel to reverse its decision in a statement on Monday.

“The UK strongly condemns the Israeli Security Cabinet’s decision yesterday to expand Israeli control over the West Bank,” the government said in a statement.

“Any unilateral attempt to alter the geographic or demographic makeup of Palestine is wholly unacceptable and would be inconsistent with international law. We call on Israel to reverse these decisions immediately,” it added.

The controversial Israeli measures include transferring authority over building permits in Hebron, the occupied West Bank’s largest city, from the Palestinian Authority to Israel.

The measures also strengthen Israeli control over two major religious sites in the southern part of the occupied West Bank: Rachel’s Tomb near Bethlehem and the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron.

Israeli minister Smotrich said on Sunday that the changes were aimed at “deepening our roots in all regions of the Land of Israel and burying the idea of a Palestinian state”.

In a statement late on Monday, Spain’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned Israel’s decision, saying it is “contrary to international law” and threatens to trigger more violence in Gaza.

“These measures and any attempt at annexation are unacceptable and jeopardise current efforts to implement the Peace Plan and the ceasefire, increasing the risk of triggering a new wave of violence,” the Foreign Ministry said.