Russian warships and nuclear-powered submarine arrive in Cuba
A Russian navy frigate and a nuclear-powered submarine churned into Havana harbor on Wednesday, a stopover the U.S. and Cuba said posed no threat but which was widely seen as a Russian show of force as tensions rise over the Ukraine war.
Curious onlookers, fishermen and police lined the Malecon seafront boulevard under gray skies to welcome the ships as they passed the 400-year old Morro castle at the harbor's entrance.
Cuba – a long-time ally of Russia – saluted the ships' arrival with cannon fire from the harbor, while Russian diplomats waved small Russian flags and took selfies as the vessels passed the harbor's historic fortresses.
The Admiral Gorshkov frigate, and later the nuclear-powered submarine Kazan, half submerged with its crew on deck, were accompanied by a tugboat and fuel ship that had arrived earlier in the morning.
The four Russian vessels sailed to Cuba on Wednesday after conducting "high-precision missile weapons" training in the Atlantic Ocean, Russia's defence ministry said Wednesday.
The submarine and frigate carry Zircon hypersonic missiles, Kalibr cruise missiles and Onyx anti-ship missiles, the ministry said.
"We have seen this kind of thing before and we expect to see this kind of thing again, and I'm not going to read into it any particular motives," Sullivan said.
(Reuters)
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