The US Navy sent ships and planes to track Russian warships that sailed yesterday just 25 miles off the coast of South Florida en route to Cuba.
Vladimir Putin’s most modern frigate, the Admiral Gorshkov, a carrier of hypersonic missiles, accompanied the Kazan nuclear submarine and two other warships in the Atlantic for exercises involving the use of high-precision weapons, the Defense Ministry said yesterday From Russia.
The four ships arrive in Havana today ahead of a series of extensive air and naval exercises, according to the ministry, the first of their kind in five years in the Caribbean.
But its proximity to the American coast led the United States Northern Command (NORTHCOM) to deploy three destroyers – USS Truxtun, USS Donald Cook and USS Delbert D. Black – and an underwater reconnaissance aircraft to monitor the Russian ships.
The Kremlin’s decision to send its heavily armed flotilla so close to Florida is seen in the West as an unnecessary power projection at a time of deep tension over Putin’s war in Ukraine, with East-West relations at their lowest point since the Cold War and the Cuban crisis. Missile crisis.
Vladimir Putin’s most modern frigate, the Admiral Gorshkov, a carrier of hypersonic missiles, passed 40 kilometers off the coast of Florida (the frigate is pictured firing a hypersonic missile in a 2022 test)
The Russian submarine Kazan Yasen-M, part of the Northern Fleet, passed near the US coast
The Russian frigate Admiral Gorshkov is seen firing its weapons in a Russian naval exercise.
Russian frigate Admiral Gorshkov in exercise mode in the Atlantic in late May-early June 2024
A still image taken from a video distributed on June 11, 2024 by the Russian Defense Ministry’s press service shows the Russian Navy’s frigate ‘Admiral Gorshkov’ participating in military exercises in the Atlantic Ocean while heading to Cuba.
A Boeing P-8 Poseidon was sent to monitor Florida waters and track the Russian flotilla
The US Navy warship ‘USS Donald Cook’ was one of three US destroyers sent to follow the Russian ships.
In addition to the three U.S. destroyers, NORTHCOM also sent a Boeing P-8 Poseidon maritime patrol and reconnaissance aircraft, which OSINT analysts said last night was monitoring an area of sea roughly equidistant between the U.S. and the Bahamas, likely the Location of Putin’s warships.
The Royal Canadian Navy frigate HMCS Ville de Quebec also joined the US flotilla in its follow-up operation to ensure the Russian flotilla continued to Cuba without problems.
The Russian Defense Ministry did not indicate what firepower the ships carried, although Cuban officials denied that the Russian ships carry nuclear missiles.
Russian pro-war Telegram channels boasted that the Kazan nuclear submarine has “guided missile weapons” on board.
Meanwhile, Admiral Gorshkov carries a battery of Putin’s fearsome Zircon hypersonic missiles, and both ships are seen as key players in Moscow’s nuclear strike force.
The other two Russian ships heading to Cuba are the oil tanker Pashin and the rescue tug Nikolay Chiker.
During Russian military exercises in the Atlantic, Admiral Gorshkov “defended the ships of the Northern Fleet from air strikes and anti-ship missiles of the conditional enemy,” the Russian Defense Ministry said.
These exercises were carried out with the help of computer simulation, such as mock The targets were hit with the Poliment-Redut SAM system, the A-192M shipborne artillery system and the Palash anti-aircraft system.
russian press He said that by passing so close to US shores, Putin’s ships were simply “giving the US a taste of its own medicine”, while analysts noted that up to 50 NATO ships are currently conducting major exercises in the Baltic Sea as part of the BALTOPS. 24 military exercises.
Vladimir Putin’s most modern frigate, the Admiral Gorshkov (pictured), a carrier of hypersonic missiles, accompanies the Kazan nuclear submarine and two other warships.
Russian warships are practicing using high-precision weapons in the Atlantic Ocean, the Russian Defense Ministry said Tuesday, putting the United States on alert. In the image: Russian submarine Kazan Yasen-M, part of the Northern Fleet.
A Russian sailor looks out a window as the Russian frigate Admiral Gorshkov fires its first weapons during a naval exercise, in images released by the Russian Defense Ministry.
Footage shows a gun being fired at the Admiral Gorshkov frigate during Russian naval exercises.
A sailor is seen aboard the Admiral Gorshkov at Russian naval exercises.
The four ships will arrive in Havana on Wednesday and will pass within 40 kilometers of the United States coast on their journey, according to reports. Pictured: A map released by OSINT analysts showing the suspected location of the Russian vessels as they passed between the United States (to the west) and the Bahamas (to the east).
Russia and Cuba previously announced that Moscow’s ships would carry out exercises off the coast of Havana from June 12 to 17.
The two countries have shared close ties since the days of the Soviet Union, first establishing diplomatic relations after the 1959 Cuban Revolution.
As communist states, Cuba and the USSR were seen as the antithesis of the capitalist United States at the time when Washington and Moscow were embroiled in the Cold War.
In 1961, the United States led a failed attempt to invade Cuba and overthrow its government (known as the Bay of Pigs invasion), further deepening the rift between the United States, the USSR, and the Cuban government.
Relations deteriorated further during the Cuban Missile Crisis, a 13-day standoff between the United States and the Soviet Union in October 1962.
The crisis saw American deployments of nuclear missiles in Italy and Turkey accompanied by Soviet deployments of nuclear weapons in Cuba.
The crisis is widely seen as the closest the Cold War came to becoming a full-blown nuclear war, and perhaps the closest the world has come to total nuclear annihilation.
Since then, the relationship between the United States and Cuba has softened.
Diplomatic relations, severed in 1961, were reestablished for the first time on July 20, 2015, and each country has an embassy in their respective capitals.
The United States continues to maintain a commercial, economic and financial embargo against Cuba, making it illegal for American corporations to do business with the country.