Russian warships are practicing the use of high-precision weapons in the Atlantic Ocean, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Tuesday, putting the US on alert.
Vladimir Putin’s most modern frigate, Admiral Gorshkov, a hypersonic missile carrier, escorts nuclear submarine Kazan and two other naval vessels.
The exercises involve hitting targets from a distance of more than 600 kilometers, the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement, and follow an anti-aircraft defense exercise.
All four ships will arrive in Havana on Wednesday and will reportedly pass 25 miles off the coast of the United States on their journey.
The fleet is seen as a clash of arms by the Russian dictator at a time of great tension over his war against Ukraine, reminiscent of the days of the Cold War and the Cuban Missile Crisis when the US faced off against Cuba and the USSR.
Russian warships are practicing the use of high-precision weapons in the Atlantic Ocean, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Tuesday, putting the US on alert. In the photo: the Russian submarine Kazan Yasen-M, part of the Northern Fleet, on its way to Cuba
Vladimir Putin’s most modern frigate Admiral Gorshkov (photo), a hypersonic missile carrier, escorts nuclear submarine Kazan and two other naval vessels
A US maritime patrol and reconnaissance Boeing P-8 Poseidon aircraft was highlighted by OSINT analysts monitoring a sea area roughly equidistant between the US and the Bahamas, likely the location of Putin’s warships.
Russian pro-war Telegram channels boast that the nuclear submarine Kazan is carrying “guided missile weapons” as it passes close to the US coastline, about 25 miles east of Florida.
Cuban officials denied that the Russian ships carry nuclear missiles.
However, Putin has recently threatened to supply his most powerful weapons to countries or regions close to his NATO enemies, in what he sees as a reward for the US, Britain and France supplying Kiev with missiles for use by Ukraine on its territory.
Nevertheless, both the Admiral Gorshkov and the Kazan are normally key ships in Putin’s nuclear strike force.
Russia has not indicated what firepower its fleet carries.
The other two ships are the tanker Pashin and the rescue tug Nikolay Chiker.
The Russian frigate Admiral Gorshkov is seen firing its weapons during a Russian naval exercise
A Russian sailor looks out a window as the Russian frigate Admiral Gorshkov uses its weapons for the first time during a naval exercise, in footage released by the Russian Ministry of Defense
Footage shows a weapon being fired at the frigate Admiral Gorshkov during Russian naval exercises
During war games in the Atlantic Ocean, Admiral Gorshkov “defended the ships of the Northern Fleet from air attacks and anti-ship missiles of the conditional enemy.”
These exercises were carried out using computer simulation, the Russian Ministry of Defense said.
Mock targets were hit with the Poliment-Redut SAM system, the A-192M naval artillery system and the Palash anti-aircraft system.
Russia and Cuba previously announced that the Russian ships would be in Cuba from June 12 to 17.
The two countries have shared close ties since the days of the Soviet Union, first strengthening diplomatic ties after the 1959 Cuban Revolution.
As communist states, Cuba and the USSR were seen as the antithesis of capitalist America at the time, when Washington and Moscow were engaged in the Cold War.
In 1961, the US led an unsuccessful attempt to invade Cuba and overthrow its government (known as the Bay of Pigs Invasion), further widening the rift between the US, USSR and the Cuban government.
Relations deteriorated further during the Cuban Missile Crisis – a thirteen-day standoff between the US and the Soviet Union in October 1962.
During the crisis, the US deployment of nuclear missiles in Italy and Turkey was matched by the Soviet Union’s deployment of nuclear weapons in Cuba.
A sailor is seen on the Admiral Gorshkov during the Russian naval exercises
All four ships will arrive in Havana on Wednesday and will reportedly pass 25 miles off the coast of the United States on their journey. Pictured: A map released by OSINT analysts showing the suspected location of the Russian ships as they passed between the United States (to the west) and the Bahamas (to the east)
The crisis is widely seen as the closest the Cold War has come to escalating into outright nuclear war, and perhaps the closest the world has come to total nuclear annihilation.
Since then, the relationship between the US and Cuba has softened.
Diplomatic ties, which were severed in 1961, were restored for the first time on July 20, 2015, and each country has an embassy in its respective capitals.
The US still maintains a commercial, economic and financial embargo on Cuba, making it illegal for US companies to do business with the country.