- Moscow and Caracas condemn the US actions as violations of international law.
- The UN Security Council will discuss rising tensions between the United States and Venezuela on Tuesday.
- Washington accuses Venezuela of financing criminal activities.
Russia on Monday expressed “full support” for Venezuela as the South American country faces a blockade of sanctioned oil tankers by US forces deployed in the Caribbean.
The promise from Moscow, embroiled in the war in Ukraine, came on the eve of a meeting of the UN Security Council (UNSC) on Tuesday to discuss the growing crisis between Caracas and Washington.
In a phone call, foreign ministers from allied nations criticized US actions, which included attacks on suspected drug trafficking ships and, most recently, the seizure of two oil tankers.
A third ship was being pursued, a U.S. official said. AFP on Sunday.
“The ministers expressed deep concern about the escalation of Washington's actions in the Caribbean Sea, which could have serious consequences for the region and threaten international shipping,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said of the call between Sergei Lavrov and his Venezuelan counterpart, Yvan Gil.
“The Russian side reaffirmed its full support and solidarity with the Venezuelan leadership and people in the current context,” he added in a statement.
Since September, U.S. forces have launched attacks on ships that Washington claims, without providing evidence, were smuggling drugs in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific Ocean.
More than 100 people have died, some of them fishermen, according to their families and governments.
US President Donald Trump also announced on December 16 a blockade of “sanctioned oil tankers” sailing to and from Venezuela.
Trump claims that Caracas, under President Nicolás Maduro, is using oil money to finance “narcoterrorism, human trafficking, murders and kidnappings.”
He also accused Venezuela of taking “all our oil,” in an apparent reference to the country's nationalization of the oil sector, and said, “we want it back.”
Caracas, in turn, fears that Washington is seeking regime change and has accused Washington of “international piracy.”
Moscow's statement said Lavrov and Gil agreed in their call to “coordinate their actions on the international stage, particularly at the UN, to ensure respect for state sovereignty and non-interference in internal affairs.”
Russia and China, another Venezuelan ally, backed Caracas' request for a UN Security Council meeting to discuss what it called “the current US aggression.”
Russia's “busy hands”
On Telegram, Venezuela's Gil said he and Lavrov had discussed “the flagrant aggressions and violations of international law being perpetrated in the Caribbean: attacks on ships, extrajudicial executions and illicit acts of piracy carried out by the United States government.”
Gil said Lavrov had affirmed Moscow's “full support in the face of hostilities against our country.”
Last week, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio brushed aside Moscow's stated support for Caracas.
Washington, he said, “is not worried about an escalation with Russia over Venezuela” as “they have their hands full in Ukraine.”
Relations between the United States and Russia have deteriorated in recent weeks as Trump expressed frustration with Moscow over the lack of a resolution to the Ukraine war.
Gil also read a letter on state television on Monday, signed by Maduro and addressed to UN member countries, warning that the US blockade “will affect the supply of oil and energy” worldwide.
