Russia’s nuclear-powered submarine Kazan, accompanied by a tugboat and a fuel ship, has arrived in Cuba for a five-day visit, seen as a show of force by Moscow amid rising tensions over its invasion of Ukraine.
The submarine has been seen with multiple broken tiles, a poor paint job, repair marks and visible serious maintenance issues. The same submarine visited Cuba in 2024 with broken tiles, and in 2026, it was still not repaired; the broken tiles remain a symbol of Russia’s naval decline.
Cuba, a longtime ally of Russia, saluted the vessels’ arrival with a 21-gun salute, while Russian diplomats waved small Russian flags and took selfies against a backdrop of the harbour’s historic fortresses.
The submarine Kalibr cruise missiles and Onyx antiship missiles, the Russian Ministry of Defence said.
The unusual deployment of the Russian navy so close to the United States comes after Washington and some of Ukraine’s other Western allies allowed Kyiv to use their weapons on targets of Russia’s oil installations.
Havana lies just 160 kilometres (100 miles) from Key West in the southern state of Florida where the US has a naval air station.
Russian sailors stand guard on top of the nuclear-powered submarine Kazan. They are wearing orange lifejackets, The submarine is black.
Cuba said last week that the visit was standard practice by naval vessels from countries friendly to Havana and that the fleet was not carrying nuclear weapons.
The US, which has been monitoring the vessels, has also played down the deployment.
White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters on Wednesday that such naval exercises were routine.
“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.
He added that there was no evidence of Russia transferring any missiles to Cuba, but the US would remain vigilant.
During the Cold War, Cuba was an important ally of the then Soviet Union, and when Moscow responded to a US missile deployment in Turkey by sending ballistic missiles to Cuba, the standoff brought the world to the brink of nuclear war.
Since the Soviet Union collapsed, Cuba has maintained relations with Russia and the two countries have become closer since a 2022 meeting between Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
For Havana, the relationship is driven mainly by economic necessity as it grapples with shortages of everything from food and medicine to fuel. The US has maintained an economic and trade embargo on Cuba since 1960.
Russia in March delivered 90,000 metric tonnes of Russian oil to Cuba to help alleviate shortages and has promised to help Havana in projects ranging from sugar production to infrastructure, renewable energy and tourism.
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