Russian Navy fleet, including nuclear-powered frigate and submarine, arrives in Cuba | Military News

The US downplays the deployment, which comes amid rising tensions over Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The Russian frigate Admiral Gorshkov and the Kazan nuclear submarine, accompanied by a tug and a fuel ship, arrived in Cuba for a five-day visit seen as a show of force by Moscow amid rising tensions over the invasion of Ukraine.

Curious fishermen and police gathered along Havana’s Malecón coastal avenue to welcome the fleet that entered the city’s port on Wednesday.

Cuba, a longtime ally of Russia, greeted the arrival of the ships with a 21-gun salute, while Russian diplomats waved small Russian flags and took selfies against the backdrop of the port’s historic fortresses.

The four Russian ships carried out “high-precision missile weapons” training in the Atlantic Ocean while heading to Cuba. The submarine and frigate are equipped with Zircon hypersonic missiles, Kalibr cruise missiles and Onyx anti-ship missiles, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

The unusual positioning of the Russian navy so close to the United States comes after Washington and some of Ukraine’s other Western allies allowed Kiev to use its weapons against targets inside Russia amid a renewed Russian attack on northeast Kharkiv and a shortage of military troops. battle and ammunition.

Havana is just 160 kilometers (100 miles) from Key West in the southern state of Florida, where the US has a naval air station.

“The warships are a reminder to Washington that it is unpleasant when an adversary meddles in the near abroad,” Benjamin Gedan, director of the Latin America program at the Washington, D.C.-based think tank Wilson Center, told the agency of Associated Press news. referring to Western involvement in Russia’s war in Ukraine.

“It also reminds Russia’s friends in the region, including US antagonists Cuba and Venezuela, that Moscow is on their side,” he said.

Cuba said last week that the visit was standard practice for warships from countries friendly to Havana and that the fleet was not carrying nuclear weapons.

The US, which has been monitoring the ships, has also downplayed the deployment.

White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told reporters Wednesday that such naval exercises were routine.

“We’ve seen this kind of thing before and we expect to see this kind of thing again, and I’m not going to read into any specific motive,” Sullivan said.

He added that there is no evidence that Russia has transferred any missiles to Cuba, but the US will remain vigilant.

‘It’s not October 1962’

The stopover coincided with a meeting in Moscow between Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez and his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov.

During the meeting, Rodriguez expressed his administration’s “rejection of the expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization [NATO] towards the Russian border”, which, according to him, “led to the current conflict in Europe, and especially between Moscow and Kiev”, according to a statement from the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

He also called for “a diplomatic, constructive and realistic solution” to the conflict.

During the Cold War, Cuba was an important ally of the then-Soviet Union, and when Moscow responded to US missile deployments in Turkey by sending ballistic missiles to Cuba, the standoff brought the world to the brink of nuclear war.

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Cuba has maintained relations with Russia and the two countries have become closer since a 2022 meeting between Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

For Havana, the relationship is driven primarily by economic necessity as it faces shortages of everything from food and medicine to fuel. The US has maintained an economic and trade embargo on Cuba since 1960.

“We are not in October 1962 again,” Javier Farje, an expert on Latin American politics, told Al Jazeera. “This is a different time. Cuba has become increasingly dependent on Russia due to lack of economic development.”

Russia in March delivered 90,000 metric tons of Russian oil to Cuba to help alleviate shortages and promised to help Havana with projects ranging from sugar production to infrastructure, renewable energy and tourism.

The Russian ships are expected to remain in Havana until June 17. U.S. officials expect Russian ships to remain in the region throughout the summer and possibly also make a stop in Venezuela.