Russia’s Kazan nuclear submarine and the Admiral Gorshkov frigate arrived in Cuba on Wednesday morning as part of a five-day stopover to the communist nation, placing the fleet within 90 miles of the U.S. coastline.
According to the Russian government, the Navy vessel and the submarine — both equipped with long-range attack missiles — are in the region to engage in aerial and naval exercises carried out by the Russian Navy. The pair are accompanied by the Russian Nikolai Chiker tug boat and the Pashin fuel ship.
The arrival of the Russian vessels and nuclear submarine was first mentioned by unnamed U.S. government sources in reports published earlier in June. In the reports, the U.S. sources stated that the vessels’ visit would include “port calls in Cuba and possibly Venezuela.”
The Cuban Foreign Ministry confirmed the visit on June 6, calling it in line with the “historic friendly relations between Cuba and the Russian Federation and is strictly in accordance with international regulations to which Cuba is a state party.” The Castro regime also claimed that none of the vessels are nuclear weapons carriers, “so their stopover in our country does not represent a threat to the region.”
People wearing Russian flags watch the Russian Kazan nuclear-powered submarine arrive at the port of Havana, Cuba, on June 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Ariel Ley)
According to the sources cited by initial reports on the visit, the administration of President Joe Biden is not concerned by the exercises and believes they “pose no direct threat to the United States.”
The vessels, which reportedly arrived in Havana on Wednesday morning, were saluted by Castro regime armed forces officials, Russian diplomatic personnel, Russian tourists, and local Cubans.
The Russian state-run TASS news agency reported on Wednesday that the fleet “completed its exercise on the use of precision weapons prior to its arrival to Havana.”
The Russian Defense Ministry said:
On the Day of Russia, the Northern Fleet naval group, which includes the Admiral Gorshkov Frigate, the Kazan nuclear submarine cruise, the Akademik Pashin medium tanker and the Nikolay Chiker rescue tugboat, arrived with an unofficial visit to the port of Havana of the Republic of Cuba. Several hours before entering the capital port of the Republic of Cuba, the naval group completed its exercise on the use of precision missile weapons.
Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov claimed on Thursday that other countries “should not worry” about Russia’s military exercises.
“Military exercises are a normal practice, [conducting training exercises] in various regions is also a normal practice for all states, especially for such a major naval power as the Russian Federation,” Peskov said, asserting that “such visits are also a common practice.”
“Therefore, we do not see any reason for concern [from other countries] in this case,” Peskov continued.
A convertible American classic car drives by as people watch Russia’s Kazan nuclear-powered submarine arrive in the port of Havana, Cuba, on June 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Ariel Ley)
Pentagon Deputy Press Secretary Sabrina Singh said on Wednesday that the United States is monitoring the presence of the Russian vessels, claiming that the exercises “do not pose a threat” to the United States.
“We’ve been tracking the Russians’ plans for this. This is not a surprise. We’ve seen them do this — these type of port calls before, and these are, you know, routine naval visits that we’ve seen under different administrations,” Singh said.
“We’re always, constantly going to monitor any foreign vessels operating near U.S. territorial waters. We of course take it seriously, but these exercises don’t pose a threat to the United States.” she continued.
White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said on Wednesday that the visit of Russian vessels to the port of Havana is “something we have seen before” and that deployments of that nature to Cuba had taken place under previous administrations:
It’s something we watch closely, carefully. It’s something that we went out publicly on several days before it happened so the world would understand the context and the world would also know that we are watching. And so, we will see how this unfolds in the coming days.
“But we have seen this kind of thing before, and we expect to see this kind of thing again. And I’m not going to read into any particular motives — here are elements in this one that are different, that are distinct,” he continued. “But fundamentally, the notion that Russia takes a — some of its Russian naval assets and does a port visit to Havana is something we have seen before.”
Sullivan asserted that the U.S. government has not seen any kind of transfer of missiles taking place during the visit, pointing out that “Cubans have gone out with their own statements reinforcing that that is not happening.”
“Of course, we don’t necessarily literally take the Cubans’ word for it, but we, through our own means, have not seen anything to that extent and do not expect anything like that to occur,” Sullivan said.
