(CNN) — The Cuban government said a fleet of Russian Navy ships, including a nuclear-powered submarine, will visit the island in the coming days as part of “historically friendly relations.”
“Between June 12 and 17, 2024, a naval detachment from the Russian Federation, composed of four ships, will make an official visit to the port of Havana: the frigate ‘Gorshkov’, the nuclear-powered submarine ‘Kazan’, the oil tanker ‘Pashin’ and the rescue tug ‘Nikolai Chiker’,” says a statement from the Ministry of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Cuba published by the country’s Foreign Ministry.
According to Cuba, none of the “ships carry nuclear weapons, so their stopover in our country does not represent a threat to the region.”
“The visits of naval units from other countries are a historical practice of the revolutionary Government with nations that maintain relations of friendship and collaboration,” the statement added.
The Almirante Gorshkov frigate of the Russian Federation Navy arrives at the port of Havana on June 24, 2019. (Credit: ADALBERTO ROQUE/AFP via Getty Images)
Moscow has not confirmed the information provided by Cuba. CNN has contacted the Russian government for comment.
It is not the first time Russian Navy ships have been sent to Cuba, a key Cold War ally of the former Soviet Union that briefly hosted nuclear missiles at Moscow’s behest during the 1962 Cuban missile crisis.
The visit by Russian ships appears to be the largest of its kind in years. Cuba is increasingly reliant on Russian oil and aid as the communist island faces its worst economic crisis in decades.
Cuba’s announcement comes days after US President Joe Biden gave Ukraine permission to attack inside Russian territory with US munitions.
The Krasnoyarsk nuclear-powered submarine, of the same Yasen class as the Kazan, on December 11, 2023 in Russia. (Credit: KIRILL IODAS/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
In response, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Western countries “supplying weapons to a conflict zone is always a bad thing.”
“In the end, if we see that these countries engage in a war against us, what they are doing directly involves them in a war against the Russian Federation, we reserve the right to act in the same way,” Putin said Wednesday. .
Putin added that in response, “first of all, we will improve our air defense systems to destroy missiles” and asked why Russia “would not have the right to supply our weapons of the same class to those regions of the world where there will be attacks on sensitive facilities of those countries that are doing this against Russia?”
