Cuba’s communist authorities have announced that a non-nuclear Russian nuclear-powered submarine will visit Havana next week amid tensions with the United States over the war in Ukraine.
The Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces Ministry said in a statement that the Kazan nuclear submarine and three other Russian naval vessels, including the Admiral Gorshkov missile frigate, an oil tanker and a salvage tugboat, It will dock in the Cuban capital from June 12 to 17.
“None of these ships carry nuclear weapons, so their stay in our country does not pose a threat to the region,” the ministry said.
The news came a day after U.S. officials said Washington had been tracking Russian warships and aircraft expected to arrive in the Caribbean for military exercises. They said the drills would be part of Russia’s broader response to U.S. support for Ukraine.
U.S. officials say Russia’s military presence is noteworthy but not worrisome. However, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow could take “asymmetric steps” elsewhere in the world in response to President Joe Biden’s decision to allow Ukraine to use U.S.-supplied weapons to attack Russian territory to protect Ukraine’s second Big city Kharkiv.
The unusual deployment of Russian troops so close to the United States – especially powerful submarines – comes amid heightened tensions in the war in Ukraine, where the Western-backed government is fighting a Russian incursion. The Russian ship’s visit to Cuba will also overlap with Biden’s visit to the G7 leaders’ summit in Italy.
Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel met Putin last month at the annual May 9 military parade on Red Square outside the Kremlin.
During the Cold War, Cuba was an important client state of the Soviet Union. The Soviet deployment of nuclear missile bases on the island triggered the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, when Washington and Moscow nearly broke out in war.
Since the 2022 meeting between Diaz-Canel and Putin, relations between Russia and Cuba have grown closer.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that during the arrival of the Russian fleet in the port of Havana, one of the ships will fire a 21-gun salute as a salute to the country, and artillery from the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces will also fire back.
