The Russian nuclear-powered submarine which stopped for five days in Havana left the Cuban capital on Monday, AFP journalists noted.
Shortly before 10 a.m. (4 p.m. in Switzerland), the Kazan left the bay of the port of Havana towards the open sea, followed shortly after by the frigate Gorshkovwhile the tanker Pashin was carrying out maneuvers to exit the port.
The Russian flotilla, which also includes a tugboat, arrived on Wednesday in the Cuban capital, where it had aroused the curiosity of the inhabitants.
The visit to Cuba by these Russian warships, about 150 km from the coast of Florida (United States), added an episode to the growing tensions between the United States and Russia over the war in Ukraine.
The Cuban Ministry of the Revolutionary Armed Forces assured last week that the Russian ships did not hold nuclear weapons and did not represent “a threat to the region”.
The Russian Defense Ministry also indicated that a day before arriving at the port of Havana the ships had carried out “an exercise on the use of high-precision missile weapons”.
Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel went aboard the Russian frigate and walked on the hull of the submarine. “Impressive and pleasant afternoon, despite the persistent rain. Welcome to our friends from Russia,” declared the head of state in a message on X, accompanied by a photo where he can be seen on the frigate.
For its part, the Pentagon indicated Thursday that its nuclear attack submarine USS Helena was also in Cuba. He was in Guantánamo Bay, the American naval base on the island, “as part of a routine visit”, but without the duration of his stopover being specified.
On Friday, Cuban Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernández de Cossio said his government had been informed in advance of the visit. “But it is obvious that we do not appreciate the presence on our territory and the passage in our waters” of a submarine of this nature belonging to a country whose “official policy and in practice is hostile to Cuba,” did he declare.
The United States said it was monitoring developments in Cuba, while asserting that the deployment of Russian ships did not represent a direct threat.
A Canadian patrol boat, the HMCS Margaret Brookealso docked in Havana on Friday, and its departure was announced for Monday.
