Warships from Russia’s Baltic Fleet arrived in Havana on Saturday for a new visit to its strategic ally, the second trip in two months by a Russian navy detachment to the Caribbean island.
The training ship Smolny and the patrol boat Neustrahimiy, as well as the oil tanker Yelnya, are part of the fleet from Russia, whose stay in the Cuban capital will extend until Tuesday, according to the Ministry of Defense.
The Revolutionary Armed Forces Ministry said the visit was routine and that the Russian sailors would meet with the head of the Cuban Navy.
On Saturday morning, Cuban authorities fired salutes into the air to welcome the Russian flotilla. A group of Russian residents in Havana also watched the event.
Ana Garces, a 78-year-old retiree, told Reuters on Saturday she recalled that the then Soviet Union was the only country to help Cuba during the 1962 Cuban missile crisis, the height of tensions with Washington as the world teetered on the brink of nuclear war.
“We are very grateful,” he said, referring to the visit of the Russian ships. “Why wouldn’t we welcome them with open arms? This is friendship. All kinds of ships have come here,” he added.
Her husband, also retired, Rolando Perez, 71, watching the ships move said: “This shows how other countries support us and it takes a bit of the global mentality away from our country.”
The U.S. State Department and the U.S. Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the matter.
This is the second trip by a Russian naval detachment to the Caribbean country in a month and a half, in an apparent show of force by Moscow at a time when tensions are rising between the United States and Russia due to the war that has been raging in Ukraine since 2022.
On June 12, a fleet of the Russian Navy, consisting of the frigate Gorshkov, the nuclear-powered submarine Kazan, the oil tanker Pashin and the rescue tug Nikolai Chiker, docked in Havana port, a visit that attracted the attention of both supporters and detractors.
Washington and Havana said at the time that Russian ships on the island did not pose a threat to the region. Havana is located only about 150 kilometers from Key West, Florida, where a U.S. Naval Air Station is located and such voyages are closely watched by Washington.
Moscow and Havana have strengthened their high-level contacts.
Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel has visited Russia four times. And Moscow has sent oil, flour and increased numbers of tourists to Havana at a time of its worst economic crisis with shortages of food and medicine, while Cubans suffer from power cuts, high inflation and U.S. trade sanctions.
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