The landing of the Russian Il-76 in Cuba alarmed the United States

At the end of October 2025, the same plane flew to Venezuela

The arrival of a Russian Il-76 transport aircraft at a military airfield in Cuba has caused concern among American officials, Fox News reports. The sanctioned Il-76, operated by the Russian airline Aviacon Cytotrans, landed at the San Antonio de los Baños airbase, 48 km south of Havana. The plane, “commonly used to transport military equipment,” previously made landings in St. Petersburg and Sochi, as well as Mauritania and the Dominican Republic, Fox News notes.

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Precedent with Venezuela

“The same aircraft operated flights to Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba at the end of October 2025 during a time of deterioration in relations between Washington and Caracas. The movement preceded US military action in Venezuela,” Fox News journalists noted. Since then, American officials and analysts have pointed to this sequence of events as a warning sign.

The Fox News article emphasizes that the United States' attention was drawn to the landing site and the nature of the flight, while the exact purposes of the plane's visit remain unknown.

Pressure on Cuba intensifies

US President Donald Trump on January 30 declared a state of emergency due to the “threat from Cuba” and issued a decree on additional duties on imports of goods from countries supplying oil to the island. The media reported that the US administration discussed the option of an oil blockade of Cuba in order to overthrow the current government.

The Russian Foreign Ministry called the pressure on Havana unacceptable and declared its readiness to continue political and material support for the country.

Earlier, the director of the Institute of Latin America of the Russian Academy of Sciences, political scientist Dmitry Rosenthal, admitted that Trump would look for a split within the Cuban elite, trying to destabilize the situation against the backdrop of the island’s economic difficulties.

Earlier, “Layout” wrote that Russia “surrendered” Venezuela and Iran because of the war in Ukraine. The United States did not warn Moscow about its actions in Venezuela during the capture of the country’s leader Nicolas Maduro at the beginning of the year.

Photo: Heavy military transport aircraft Il-76 of Russia at the air show in China, November 14, 2024. CFOTO/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect

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