Navy tracks Russian warships as they sail near the United States en route to Cuba

Russian warships arrived in Havana port on Wednesday, part of Vladimir Putin's efforts to project power amid Russia's war against Ukraine and a U.S. decision to allow Ukraine to use American weapons to attack parts of Russia.

The Cuban government said the visit was part of a military exercise between the two nations, a mark of what they call the “historically friendly relations” between Cuba and Russia.

Although there is precedent for this type of Russian military exercise in Cuba, experts say it comes at a delicate time.

“The Kremlin continues to be unhappy with the support provided by the West and the United States to the Ukrainians,” said Andrew D'Anieri of the Atlantic Council's Eurasia Center.

The Russian Defense Ministry released a video this week showing Russian military ships practicing naval maneuvers somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean. At the same time, the US Navy posted photos on social media showing its own joint operation with the Canadian Navy, also in the Atlantic.

All of this is happening around this week's visit to Cuba – an island nation just 90 miles from Florida – of three Russian warships carrying hypersonic missiles, as well as a nuclear-powered submarine, even s It does not carry nuclear weapons, according to the Cuban government. government.

“This is something we've seen in the past. I think what's unusual is the context in which this is happening now,” said Ryan Berg, director of the Americas program at the Center for Strategic Studies and international.

Berg said the war in Ukraine adds a new dimension to Russian military exercises in the Caribbean.

“The presence of the Russians certainly allows them to say that they are capable of projecting their power, their military power in the Western Hemisphere, just as the United States is capable of doing so in the European theater,” he said. he declares.

Meanwhile, Ukraine has hit the Russian navy hard in the Black Sea.

“They are bleeding ships in the Black Sea. About a third of their Black Sea fleet was sunk by the Ukrainians through innovative methods, through the use of drones and missiles. So this is a navy that lost a lot of money. some of its prestige in the Ukraine campaign,” Berg said. “Russia cannot afford to have too many ships in the Western Hemisphere while it is actively fighting a war in the European theater.”

That means any comparisons to the Cuban Missile Crisis — when the Soviet Union deployed nuclear missiles to Cuba in the 1960s — might exaggerate the current reality, according to D'Anieri.

“We are a long way from the Cuban Missile Crisis. We are not at all close to a nuclear war. There are American ships tracking the activities of these Russian ships as they head towards Cuba,” he said. D’Anieri said. “So I think it's actually pretty much under control, but it's more of a message to the Kremlin – and we should be careful not to see it too much as a threat of escalation.”

The Russian Defense Ministry said that while in the Atlantic it carried out computer-simulated attacks targeting simulated targets 370 miles away. Russian military ships are expected to stay in Cuba for five days.