A Russian nuclear-powered submarine will make a stop in Havana next week, the Cuban authorities announced late Thursday.
The nuclear submarine Kazan and three other Russian naval vessels, including the missile frigate Admiral Gorshkov, an oil tanker and a salvage tug, will dock in the Cuban capital on June 12-17, Cuba’s Ministry of the Revolutionary Armed Forces said in a statement.
“None of the vessels are carrying nuclear weapons, so their stop-over in our country does not represent a threat to the region,” the ministry added.
The surprise deployment of the Russian military so close to the United States comes amid major tensions over the war in Ukraine, already in its third year.
Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel met with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin last month for the annual May 9 Victory Day parade on Red Square.
During the Cold War, Cuba was an important client state for the Soviet Union. The deployment of Soviet nuclear missile sites on the island triggered the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 when Washington and Moscow came close to war.
Relations between Russia and Cuba have strengthened since a 2022 meeting between Diaz-Canel and Putin.
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