Cuba said Thursday that Russian warships will arrive in Havana next weekbut the four ships of the navy They are not nuclear weapons carriers and do not represent a threat to the region.
“This visit corresponds to the historical friendly relations between Cuba and the Russian Federation and is strictly in accordance with international regulations,” the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.
“None of the ships carry nuclear weapons, so their stopover in our country does not represent a threat to the region,” he added.
The announcement of the visit to Cuba comes a day after a US official told reporters that Russia had plans to send combat ships to the Caribbean region, including its allies in Cuba and Venezuela to conduct naval exercises.
The Tensions between the United States and Russia have increased since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and Moscow’s naval activity, although routine in the Atlantic, has intensified due to US support for Ukraine, US officials have said.
Although the military maneuvers have been planned in advance, they take place after the words of the president of Russia, Vladimir Putin, about possible retaliation due to Ukrainian attacks against Russian territory with Western weapons. The president mentioned the possibility of Moscow delivering military material to other countries to carry out “attacks against sensitive targets” of kyiv’s partners.
However, Washington does not consider the planned arrival of a small number of planes and ships threateningbut the US Navy will monitor the exercises, a US official said Wednesday.
The statement from Havana indicated that the Russian ships will be in the port of Havana between June 12 and 17. Visits by naval units from other countries are a historical practice of the Cuban Government with nations with which “we maintain relations of friendship and collaboration.”
The ships that make up the Russian naval detachment are, according to the statement, the frigate Gorshkov, the nuclear-powered submarine Kazan, the fleet oil tanker Pashin and the rescue tug Nikolai Chiker.
The Russian frigate Admiral Gorshkov, the lead ship of the latest generation of frigates in the Russian Navy, carried out an exercise in January 2023 to train the launch of Tsirkon hypersonic missiles in the Atlantic using a computer simulation.
In February 2023, it participated in joint exercises with South Africa and China, and last March it joined the joint exercises carried out by the South African navies. China, Iran and Russia in the Gulf of Oman.
For its part, the Kazan is a nuclear-powered submarine with the capacity to fire cruise missiles that came into operation in 2021.
The statement from the Cuban Foreign Ministry indicated that upon arrival at the port of Havana on June 12, the frigate Gorshkov will fire 21 salutes “as a greeting to the Nation”a gesture that will be replicated from the fortresses of the capital’s bay.
He added that during the Russian visit the sailors will carry out a program of activities with courtesy visits and tours of historical and cultural interest.
(With information from Reuters, EP and EFE)
