An aircraft carrying heavy Russian cargo that has already transferred air defense equipment to Venezuela landed on a military air base near Havana, as per the flight documents obtained by Defense News. It was an Ilyushin Il-76 flown by the Aviacon Zitotrans, a state-owned airline of Russia, which landed late on Sunday evening at San Antonio de los Banas Air Base, some 50 kilometers south of the capital of Cuba.
Flight information indicates that the Il-76 had taken off St. Petersburg at the end of January and had traveled to Sochi and had several interim stops, including one in Mauritania, Algeria, the Dominican Republic and subsequently Cuba. The aircraft in question, with the registration of RA-78765, has the recent history of operations in the continent of Latin America.
The Il-76 of the same number made flights to Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Cuba at the end of October 2025 at the time of increasing tensions between Caracas and Washington. Ever since the U.S military intervention in Venezuela on January 3, U.S President Donald Trump has been under more scrutiny. The pressure was added to the situation further on January 29, when Donald Trump issued an executive order stating that Cuba was a national emergency and imposed tariffs on any state that would supply oil to the island unless Havana would comply with U.S. national security and foreign policy priorities.
The Il-76 Ilyushin can hold up to 50 tons of cargo or a number of 200 passengers. Such aircraft have been previously used in transportation of military supplies, small arms and people on behalf of Russia. Aviacon Zitotrans has a proven record of performing military cargo flights and has been approved of its operations by several countries.
The United States, Canada, and Ukraine have sanctioned Aviacon Zitotrans on the grounds of funding the military activities in Russia. In January 2023, the U.S. Treasury department declared that the airline had transported military gear comprising rockets, warheads, and helicopter components to places like Venezuela and some African nations. The company has also engaged in the export of the Russian-made weapons to various countries on behalf of the state owned weaponry export company Rosoboronexport.
Explicit information about the cargo on the aircraft on its present flight is not known. The aircraft carried pantsir-S1 short range air defense systems as well as Buk-M2E medium range air defense systems in its previous mission to Venezuela before the U.S. strikes as reported by Russian lawmaker Alexei Zhuravlev and Russian state media. These systems were small enough and light enough to be transported by Il-76 aircraft albeit the Buk system would have probably had to be disassembled to some degree.
The Cuba flight is a reflection of the previous Venezuela mission in various ways such as the intermediaries in north Africa as well as the context of the increasing geopolitical tensions between the Russians and the client country in Latin America. Russian provided air defense systems in Venezuela did not aid the U.S. operation that led to capturing President Nicolas Maduro, which analysts explained by human error, poor preparation, and superior military forces of the U.S.
In March 2025, Russia and Cuba signed and ratified another military cooperation agreement, which legalized joint military operations, training, consultations, specialists exchange, and military equipment supply.