06/17/2024
The submarine Russian nuclear propulsion “Kazan” This Monday he left the port of Havana, where it remained anchored for five days in sight of the Havana residents, while a submersible United Statesalso nuclear, arrived at the Guantanamo naval base on Thursday.
Shortly before 10:00 in the morning, the large black shell of “Kazan” crossed the mouth of Havana Bay to sail towards the open sea, followed half an hour later by the frigate “Almirante Gorshkov”, while the ship tanker “Pashin” was making exit maneuvers.
The Russian flotilla, which also includes the rescue tug “Nikolai Chiker”arrived on Wednesday in the Cuban capital amid great expectation from the inhabitants, who approached the port to see a nuclear submarine with their own eyes.
The unusual Russian deployment to just 150 kilometers from the Florida coast It comes amid growing tensions over war in ukrainea country that has the support of the West in its fight against a Russian invasion.
The Ministry of the Revolutionary Armed Forces (Minfar) indicated last week, before their arrival, that these ships do not carry nuclear weapons and do not represent a “threat to the region.”
Its Russian counterpart said on its side on Wednesday in a statement that a day before its arrival at the port of Havana, the flotilla had carried out “an exercise on the use of high-precision missile weapons.”
President Miguel Diaz Canel He visited the deck of the Russian submarine and frigate over the weekend. “Impressive and pleasant afternoon, even in the persistent rain. Welcome, friends of #Russia,” she said on her X account (formerly Twitter), in a message accompanied by a photo of her on the frigate.
On Thursday the fast attack submarine “USS Helena” arrived at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, “as part of a routine port visit,” the Pentagon reported. A visit that was informed in advance to the Cuban government, according to Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Carlos Fernández de Cossio in a statement.
“But obviously “We do not like the presence in our territory and passing through our waters.” of a submarine of that nature that belongs to a country with “an official and practical policy that is hostile against Cuba,” said Fernández de Cossio.
The United States military assured that it closely monitors the presence of the Russian ships, but that they do not pose a direct threat. Additionally, the Canadian ship “Margaret Brooke” arrived in Cuba on Friday. She left the island this Monday.
During the Cold Warthe deployment of Soviet nuclear missiles on the island triggered the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, when Washington and Moscow came close to going to war.
