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By Jesus Mesa
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A four-ship Russian naval flotilla, including the frigate Gorshkov and the nuclear-powered submarine Kazan, entered the Caribbean on Wednesday en route to Cuba — a mere 90 miles off the coast of Florida — highlighting the escalating tensions between Moscow and Washington over the war in Ukraine.
Moscow has said the fleet is simply conducting routine military drills with its allies in Havana.
The fleet off the coast of the U.S. includes the oil tanker Pashin and the rescue tug Nikolay Chiker, confirmed by the Cuban Foreign Ministry. The Russian warships have already reached Cuban waters and are expected to arrive at port in Havana later on Wednesday, staying at least through the weekend.
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A map from MarineTraffic, a website that tracks ships worldwide, shows the route of the Russian fleet through the Caribbean. According to the website' live tracker, the Russian rescue tug Nikolay Chiker was 26 nautical miles from Key Largo, Florida, as of Wednesday morning.
The Russian Defense Ministry said that the Gorshkov and Kazan conducted missile drills in the Atlantic, simulating strikes on enemy ships from over 370 miles away — part of President Vladimir Putin's response to increased NATO support for Ukraine, which includes allowing Kyiv to use their weapons to strike targets in Russia.
The Biden administration told reporters it did not see the move as threatening, but is monitoring the exercises. Open-source maritime and aerial tracking data indicate that U.S. naval and air assets shadowed the Russian warships as they passed Florida's eastern coast en route to Cuba.
On Tuesday, open-source intelligence (OSINT) analysts posted updates showing several vessels, including the CG Stone coast guard vessel, the destroyers USS Truxtun and USS Donald Cook, and the Royal Canadian Navy frigate HMCS Ville de Quebec, traveling southward along the Florida coast appearing to follow the Russian flotilla. In the air, at least one U.S. Navy P-8A Poseidon and a Canadian CP-140 Aurora appeared to be conducting surveillance.
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Newsweek has contacted the Pentagon for further comment via email.
U.S. officials emphasized that while the Russian movements are concerning, they do not pose an immediate threat. "We have no indication and no expectation that nuclear weapons will be involved in these exercises or embarked on those vessels," John Kirby, the White House national security spokesperson, told reporters.
Russian naval visits to its old Cold War ally, which occurred annually between 2013 and 2020, are not particularly unusual and tend to represent a strategic show of strength by Moscow. However, they "impose a significant cost on the Russian navy, which faces challenges in maintaining readiness and conducting deployments with an aging fleet," said Pentagon spokesperson Maj. Charlie Dietz last week.
U.S. officials also mentioned that the Russian ships might remain in the region through the summer, with a possible additional port call in Venezuela.
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