Newsman: Russian naval unit of a four-ship convoy including a nuclear-powered submarine arrived in Cuba on Wednesday morning. The vessels will carry out a five-day official visit to the Caribbean Island.
En route to Cuba, the Russian warships conducted drills in the Atlantic, the Russian Ministry of Defense said Tuesday.
The crews of the frigate and the nuclear submarine missile cruiser practiced the use of high-precision missile weapons using computer simulation for naval targets, designating ship groupings of a simulated enemy located at a distance of over 600 km, according to the Russian MOD, Russian state media TASS reports.
Cuba said that such visits were standard practice by naval units from countries friendly to Havana, and insisted the stopover does not represent a threat to the region.
“Visits by naval units from other countries are a historical practice of the revolutionary government with nations that maintain relations of friendship and collaboration,” a statement from Cuba’s Foreign Ministry said.
According to a Cuban Armed Forces Ministry statement, none of the Russian ships are armed with nuclear weapons.
Cuba has long had good relations with Russia. It was a key ally to the former Soviet Union during the Cold War that briefly hosted nuclear missiles at Moscow’s behest during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.
Russian frigate Admiral Gorshkov – the first of a four-ship convoy – fired a 21-gun salute after entering Havana harbor, which was answered by the Cubans with cannon fire from an 18th-century colonial fort built by the Spanish to guard the port.
The Gorshkov is one of the Russian Navy’s most modern ships, and was followed by the nuclear-powered submarine Kazan, a rescue tug, and an oil tanker.
It marks the largest show of force by the Russians with their longstanding ally Cuba in many years.
The US military had deployed ships and planes to monitor Russia’s military exercises in the Atlantic and the Caribbean, and has been tracking the Russian vessels as they transited the Atlantic in recent days en route to Cuba according to US officials CNN reported.
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US Navy ships that have been tracking the Russian vessels include the USS Truxtun, the USS Donald Cook, and Coast Guard vessel the USCGC Stone, the US official confirmed. The US has also deployed air assets, including a P-8 Poseidon reconnaissance plane, to circle overhead the Russian vessels. Canada has also deployed assets to monitor the activity, the official told CNN.
The official added that the US has been monitoring the flotilla’s movements “the whole time,” which is a normal part of the US’ maritime homeland defense, and all vessels including the Russians have remained in international waters.
