Havana, July 26 (RHC)-- More than one million sanitary masks, food, and personal protection equipment arrived Sunday in Cuba as part of the humanitarian aid sent by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Upon receiving the shipment at the capital's José Martí International Airport, Betsy Díaz Velázquez, Minister of Domestic Trade (MINCIN), on behalf of the Cuban people, the Communist Party, and the Government thanked the gesture of solidarity born of the brotherhood of many years.

We are doubly grateful, she said, because the country is in the most complex moment of the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, in addition to the shortage, mainly of food, as a result of the 243 measures applied by the U.S. government and the persecution of our financial operations.

Andrey Guskov, Ambassador of the Russian Federation in Cuba, affirmed that this is an act of solidarity with the Cuban people in the midst of the pandemic and the intensification of the economic, commercial, and financial blockade.

He detailed that the shipment contains food products such as wheat flour, canned meat, oil, and also one million masks, which are part of the 88 tons transported by the two An-124 Ruslan military planes belonging to the Russian Ministry of Defense.