Russia has condemned a US strike on a boat allegedly carrying illegal drugs off the coast of Venezuela that killed four people on Friday and warned of potential escalation in the entire Caribbean region.
In a phone call to his Venezuelan counterpart, Yvan Gil, on Sunday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov condemned the attack, which took place in international waters.
“The ministers expressed serious concern about Washington’s escalating actions in the Caribbean Sea that are fraught with far-reaching consequences for the region,” said a statement by the Russian Foreign Ministry following the conversation.
“The Russian side has confirmed its full support and solidarity with the leadership and people of Venezuela in the current context.”
US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth told Fox News in an interview on Sunday that he had “every authorisation needed” to conduct military strikes on vessels off the coast of Venezuela. He did not provide more details about what the authorisation granted his office permission to do.
In a post on X following Friday’s strike, Hegseth claimed the vessel was transporting “substantial amounts of narcotics — headed to America to poison our people”.
“These strikes will continue until the attacks on the American people are over!!!!,” he said.
In a nearly 40-second video of the strike shared by Hegseth, a vessel can be seen moving through the water before a web of projectiles falls on the boat and the surrounding water, causing the boat to explode on impact.
He claimed that the intelligence “without a doubt” confirmed that the vessel was carrying drugs and that the people on board were “narco-terrorists”. He disclosed neither the amount nor the type of alleged drugs aboard, and he did not release any evidence to support his assertion that the targets of the strike were drug smugglers.
US war against drug cartels
The latest strike brings the number of such United States attacks to at least four, leaving at least 21 people dead.
US President Donald Trump notified Congress on Thursday that his administration had determined that members of drug cartels are “unlawful combatants” with whom the US is engaged in “non-international armed conflict”.
Trump on Sunday told reporters at the White House that the US military build-up in the Caribbean had halted drug trafficking from South America. “There’s no drugs coming into the water. And we’ll look at what phase two is,” he said, without providing more details on his plans.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has repeatedly alleged that the US is hoping to drive him out of power. Venezuelan Defence Minister General Vladimir Padrino said on Thursday — when the country blasted an “illegal incursion” near its borders by US warplanes — that US attacks were “a vulgarity, a provocation, a threat to the security of the nation”.
Washington has cited the US Constitution, war powers, designation of drug cartels as “foreign terrorist organizations”, the right to self-defence and international law on unlawful combatants as the legal basis for the strikes.
Some legal experts and lawmakers argue that using military force in international waters against alleged criminals bypasses due process, violates law enforcement norms, lacks a clear legal foundation under US and international law, and is not justified by the cartels’ “terrorist” designation.
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