The Canadian military is monitoring the Russian navy vessels, including a nuclear-powered submarine, visiting Cuba.
“The Canadian Armed Forces are tracking the movements and activities of the Russian naval flotilla,” the Department of National Defence told Global News in a statement.
A spokesperson said a Royal Canadian Air Force CP-140 Aurora plane and HMCS Ville de Québec “have been observing the Russian flotilla’s activities.”
The Russian submarine and navy frigate sailed into Havana’s harbour on Wednesday, joining a tugboat and fuel ship that had already arrived.
The visit is widely seen as a Kremlin show of force with tensions rising over the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The flotilla arrived after conducting “high-precision missile weapons” training in the Atlantic Ocean, Russia’s defence ministry told Reuters.
The submarine and frigate carry hypersonic, cruise and anti-ship missiles, the Kremlin also said.
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The Cuban and U.S. governments said the fleet is not carrying nuclear weapons.
White House national security advisor Jake Sullivan told reporters those 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.
The U.S. has been monitoring the vessels and they sailed along the nearby Florida coast but said they posed no threat.
“Routinely monitoring the approaches to North America is part of our mandate to defend Canada and North America,” the DND statement said.
The Russian vessels are expected to remain in Cuba until June 17, overlapping with a Canadian navy frigate visiting.
HMCS Margaret Brooke visits Havana from June 14 for three days, according to a Canadian Joint Operations Command Facebook post.
The visit is “in recognition of the long-standing bilateral relationship between Canada and Cuba,” the post states.
Global News asked if the CAF had changed any alert statuses because of the Russian visit or had communicated with Russia about the flotilla.
DND did not answer.
— with files from Reuters’ Dave Sherwood
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