The Russian nuclear-powered submarine stopping for five days in Havana left the Cuban capital on Monday, AFP journalists noted.
The “Kazan” left the bay of the port of Havana towards the open sea, followed shortly after by the frigate “Gorshkov”, while the tanker “Pashin” carried out maneuvers to exit the port.
The Russian flotilla, which also includes a tugboat, arrived in the Cuban capital on Wednesday, where it aroused the curiosity of residents.
The visit to Cuba by these warships, some 150 km from the coast of Florida, came against a backdrop of growing tensions between the United States and Russia over the war in Ukraine.
The Cuban Ministry of the Revolutionary Armed Forces (Minfar) 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 Diaz-Canel went aboard the Russian frigate and set foot on the hull of the submarine. “Impressive and pleasant afternoon, despite the persistent rain. Welcome our friends from Russia“, said the head of state in a message on X, accompanied by a photo where he appears on the frigate.
At the same time, the Pentagon indicated Thursday that the nuclear attack submarine USS Helena was also in Cuba, in Guantanamo Bay, the American naval base on the island, “as part of a routine visit“, but without specifying the duration of his stopover.
On Friday, Cuban Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernandez de Cossio said in a statement that 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 but said the deployment of Russian ships did not represent a direct threat.
A Canadian patrol boat, the “HMCS Margaret Brooke”, also docked in Havana on Friday, with departure announced for Monday.
