Russia Donates Wheat to Ally Cuba

Russia on Thursday donated nearly 20,000 tonnes of wheat to political ally Cuba, a welcome gift to the Caribbean island nation beginning to feel the pain ofsoaring global pricesfor grains following the war in Ukraine.

Reutersreports that Russian ambassador to Cuba Andrei Guskov said at a ceremony that his country´s government had agreed last year to send the grains to Cuba.

But the ship transporting the wheat, Guskov said, was stalled off the island for a month by Western sanctions imposed on Russia after its invasion of Ukraine.

Banking-related restrictions had complicated Russia´s payments to the shipper, he said, making it impossible for the boat to offload and "convert the wheat to bread for Cubans."