Diplomatic tensions between Washington and Havana have widened in recent months.

Cuba has denounced the “ruthless” US embargo against the island during a United Nations General Assembly debate.

“The government of the United States is carrying out against Cuba a multi-dimensional, non-conventional warfare that has already lasted for almost seven decades now and has become ever more cruel and more ruthless during the last seven months,” Minister of Foreign Affairs Bruno Rodriguez told the UN on Tuesday, slamming the blockade’s “collective punishment” of the population.

“Paying attention to this ruthless crime is also a responsibility of the UN,” he added.

He noted that the damage wrought by the embargo during the period of March 2025 through February 2026 amounted to a record $8bn, a seven percent increase over the same period one year earlier. He added that these figures however do not include the “extreme impact” of the fuel blockade the US imposed on Cuba in February.

Many of the world’s regional blocs, including countries in Africa and the Caribbean, expressed their support for Cuba on Tuesday and condemned the US blockade.

Every year since 1992, the General Assembly has adopted by a large majority a non-binding resolution calling for the lifting of the blockade imposed on Cuba by the US.

Support weakened slightly last October, when 165 member states voted in favour – down from 187 the year before – and seven against, with a dozen abstentions.

Tuesday’s vote on whether to hold the debate signalled potential further erosion, with 136 in favour, nine against, and 30 abstentions – including traditional supporters Germany and Canada.

“There is no American blockade,” US Ambassador Mike Waltz insisted from the podium. “The only embargo in Cuba is the guillotine the regime keeps over the heads of its people.”

Referring to recent diplomatic talks between Havana and Washington, Rodriguez stressed that “there has not been any progress” and would likely be none as long as US officials “treat Cuba as a vanquished or conquered adversary, as a colonial possession.”

Some speakers, while deploring US policy toward Cuba, also pointed to Havana’s responsibilities.

“The dire situation of the Cuban people is not only due to the embargo,” said the European Union’s ambassador to the UN, Stavros Lambrinidis.

The envoy highlighted the need for authorities to make “meaningful political and economic reforms” in Cuba, including respect for human rights, while he condemned Havana’s alignment with Moscow in Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Reporting from UN headquarters in New York, Al Jazeera’s Gabriel Elizondo said the contentious exchanges at the UN clearly show the deep tensions that remain between Havana and Washington.

Under the current blockade, Cuba has been experiencing mounting anguish over power cuts that have hit across the country as a consequence of the blockade on oil supplies coming to the island imposed by the US.

US President Donald Trump ordered the blockade on oil supplies to Cuba in January as part of a pressure campaign aimed at ending six decades of communist rule.

With only one oil tanker from Russia making it to Cuba’s shores since then, the country’s creaking Soviet-era power plants are running out of critical fuel needed to generate electricity.

Food, drinking water and medicine are also in increasingly short supply, and the United Nations has warned of a humanitarian emergency.