HAVANA: On Wednesday, a Russian military ship and a nuclear-powered submarine entered Havana Harbor. Although the US and Cuba declared the visit to be non-threatening, it was widely interpreted as a Russian show of force as tensions over the conflict in Ukraine grew.
Under overcast skies, curious bystanders, fisherman, and law enforcement gathered along the Malecon seaside boulevard to greet the ships as they passed the 400-year-old Morro fortress at the entrance to the harbor.
Longtime Russian ally Cuba welcomed the ships’ arrival with cannon fire from the harbor, and as the ships passed the harbor’s ancient fortifications, Russian diplomats waved tiny Russian flags and snapped photographs.
Tugboat and fuel ship arrived earlier in the morning to accompany the nuclear-powered submarine Kazan, which was partially submerged with its crew on deck, and the Admiral Gorshkov frigate.
According to Russia’s defense ministry, the four Russian ships left on Wednesday for Cuba after practicing using “high-precision missile weapons” in the Atlantic Ocean. According to the ministry, the submarine and frigate are equipped with Onyx anti-ship missiles, Kalibr cruise missiles, and Zircon hypersonic missiles.
Cuba stated last week that the visit was typical for naval ships from nations that support Havana. US officials confirmed the communist-run government’s foreign ministry’s statement that the fleet was devoid of nuclear weapons.
Although the Russian boats were avoiding the adjacent Florida shore, the US continued to monitor them and declared them to be unthreatening. Such naval drills are standard, White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told reporters on Wednesday.
“I’m not going to read any specific motives into it; we have seen this kind of thing before and we expect to see it again,” Sullivan stated. Although there was no proof that Russia had sent any missiles to Cuba, he said, the US would nonetheless be on guard. “We don’t anticipate anything similar happening.”
Power struggle
The US Naval Air Station in Key West, Florida, is located roughly 100 miles from Havana. According to American University professor William Leogrande, the visit’s timing signals more than “standard practice” as the Biden administration considers how far to go in supporting Ukraine’s defense against Russia.
Leogrande stated, “Putin is reminding Biden that Moscow can challenge Washington in its own sphere of influence with the visiting Russian warships.”
The visit takes place at the height of Cuba’s most severe social and economic crisis in decades, marked by shortages of food, medication, and gasoline as well as rising unrest on the streets.
“There are similarities between this and the previous Cold War, but the Cubans are drawn to Moscow not out of ideological affinities but rather out of economic necessity,” Leogrande remarked.
Cuba is a country steeped in history, particularly that of Russia and the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union’s deployment of ballistic missiles to Cuba in response to US missiles in Turkiye in 1962 sparked a standoff that put the world in danger of nuclear war and resulted in the Cuban missile crisis.
The two nations are reestablishing their relationship.
