Three Russian ships and a nuclear-powered submarine arrived in Cuban waters on Wednesday ahead of army training in the Caribbean. While the trainings are not a risk to the United States, U. S. ships have been deployed to practice the Russians, U. S. officials told CBS News. .
Russian warships were seen arriving at the port of Havana on Wednesday morning and are expected to remain in Cuba until Monday. White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters on Air Force One on Wednesday that the U. S. is keeping a close eye on Russian ships.
“We’ve noticed this kind of thing before and we look forward to seeing them again,” Sullivan said.
The U. S. intelligence network has deemed the submarine nuclear-powered but does not carry nuclear weapons, CBS News national security correspondent David Martin reported. White House national security spokesman John Kirby told CBS News last week, CBS News political correspondent Ed O’Keefe. , that there was no indication that nuclear weapons were “at risk” of the ships remaining in the Caribbean.
According to the Cuban Foreign Ministry, the 3 Russian ships are a frigate, a fleet tanker and a rescue tugboat. The 3 ships and the submarine crossed the Atlantic separately, Martín reported.
Russia used the frigate Admiral Gorshkov for its Zircon hypersonic cruise missiles, according to the Reuters news agency.
Two U. S. destroyers and two ships towing sonar devices were guarding the submarine, Martin said. Another destroyer and a U. S. Coast Guard guard the three Russian ships. The U. S. Navy The U. S. also used small sailboats equipped with cameras, known as sail drones, to track Russian ships as they approached Cuba.
The Admiral Gorshkov and the submarine conducted exercises in the Atlantic simulating a missile attack on enemy ships, the Russian Defense Ministry told The Associated Press on Tuesday.
While the Russian ships are in Cuba, U. S. Navy ships tracking them are waiting for the Russians and continue to pursue them as they leave port, Martin said.
The shipment’s arrival in Havana, which Cuba’s Foreign Ministry says is expected to arrive with the fanfare of a Russian shipment firing 21 salutes as a salute to Cuba, precedes Russian air and naval exercises in the Caribbean in the coming weeks, Martin said.
The training, which will include long-range bombers, will be the first simultaneous air and naval maneuvers conducted through Russia in the Caribbean since 2019, Martin said. The trainings will take place during the summer and will culminate with global naval training at the fall.
“It’s clear that they’re expressing their dissatisfaction with what we’re doing for Ukraine,” Kirby told O’Keefe. “So we’re going to monitor it, we’re going to monitor it, it’s not unexpected . . . But we do. ” We don’t anticipate, we don’t expect there to be an imminent risk or a risk at all, in fact. Frankly, for U. S. national security in the region, in the Caribbean region or anywhere else. “
The Russian ships are expected to head to Venezuela after Cuba, but it’s unclear exactly what the submarine will do, Martin said.
Events in the Caribbean are different from the Cuban missile crisis that occurred more than 60 years ago. The 1962 crisis erupted after the United States discovered Soviet nuclear ballistic missile launch sites in Cuba.
Within thirteen days, the crisis brought the Soviet Union and the United States dangerously close to nuclear war. A potential confrontation was averted when Kennedy’s leadership reached an agreement with the Kremlin for the withdrawal of the missiles from Cuba.