Sanctioned Russian Aircraft Touches Down in Cuba, Drawing Parallels to Maduro’s Departure Flights

On Sunday night, a Russian Il-76 cargo plane, operating under official authorization, touched down in Cuba. This event brings to mind a curious parallel with past occurrences in Venezuela, particularly right before U.S. forces captured Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, leading to his eventual detention in the United States.

The journey of this Russian aircraft to Cuba was anything but straightforward, with stops including Mauritania and the Dominican Republic. These destinations might add a couple of new names to President Trump’s mental ledger of nations that have either aligned with or opposed U.S. interests.

This isn’t the first time this particular aircraft has flouted what could be termed the “Donroe Doctrine,” hinting at a pattern of defiance or strategic maneuvering in the face of U.S. policies.

However, while the Cuban President, Miguel Díaz-Canel, is under U.S. sanctions for human rights abuses, he doesn’t currently face any American arrest warrants as Maduro did. Therefore, it seems unlikely that U.S. operatives would attempt a dramatic extraction from Havana. The sanctions against Díaz-Canel reflect serious allegations, but they stop short of prompting a direct legal intervention from the United States.

The U.S.-sanctioned Ilyushin Il-76, operated by Russian state-linked airline Aviacon Zitotrans, was tracked landing at San Antonio de los Baños Airfield, a Cuban military installation roughly 30 miles south of Havana, according to public flight data.

Flight-tracking records show the aircraft stopped in St. Petersburg and Sochi in Russia; Mauritania, Africa; and the Dominican Republic. Each landing would have required approval from host governments, offering a window into which countries are continuing to permit Russian military-linked aviation activity despite Western sanctions.

Mauritania and the Dominican Republic? Now, President Trump has a few new entries on his lists of who has been naughty and who has been nice.

This aircraft has violated the rules of the Donroe Doctrine before.

The same aircraft conducted flights to Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba in late October 2025, as tensions between Washington and Caracas escalated. That movement preceded U.S. military action in Venezuela that ultimately ended Maduro’s rule — a sequence U.S. officials and analysts have since pointed to as a warning indicator when evaluating similar Russian aviation activity in the region.

Now, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel finds himself under mounting pressure from President Donald Trump, who has sharply intensified U.S. policy toward Havana in recent weeks.

Of course, the Cuban President Díaz-Canel, unlike his buddy Maduro, isn’t the subject of any outstanding American arrest warrants, so it’s doubtful the Night Stalkers will go into Havana and extract him from his bed in the middle of the night. The Cuban top dog is under U.S. sanctions for human rights violations, but that won’t get him dragged into an American courthouse.