Havana (Associated Press):
A Russian military fleet, including nuclear submarines, left Havana port on Monday, wrapping up a five-day visit to Cuba following scheduled military exercises in the Atlantic Ocean that some see as a show of strength by Moscow against a backdrop of tensions as the United States and other Western countries back Kiev in Russia's war in Ukraine.
Submarines, frigates, oil tankers and salvage tugboats slowly left the port on Monday morning.
It is unclear where the fleet will go next or where it will stop in the Caribbean, but U.S. officials said days ago that the fleet could stop in Venezuela.
Biden administration officials said last week they were monitoring the ship and found it had not posed any threat to the region or signaled it was transporting missiles, but the U.S. still parked the submarine USS Helena at the Guantanamo Bay naval base in Cuba.
The U.S. naval base is located in the southeastern part of the island, about 1,000 kilometers (625 miles) from the capital, Havana, and is considered an illegally occupied territory by the Cuban government.
The Russian ships arrived in port after the Russian Defense Ministry reported last week that the fleet had successfully conducted military exercises in the Atlantic Ocean simulating a missile attack on targets more than 600 kilometers (375 miles) away.
The fleet, consisting of the frigate Gorshkov, the nuclear submarine Kazan, the tanker Pashin and the tugboat Nikolai Chiker, was greeted with a 21-gun salute in Havana.
Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel visited the frigate on Saturday and interacted with the sailors, he posted on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.
Meanwhile, Cuban Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernández de CosÃo rejected the presence of US submarines at Guantanamo Bay as unwelcome and uninvited.
A State Department spokesman said last week that Russia's port visit to Cuba was a “routine naval visit” and posed no danger.
Hundreds of people lined up to see the frigate on Thursday, the day after it arrived, and it was open to the public again on Saturday, as is common practice when ships dock at the port.
The Canadian Navy patrol vessel Margaret Brooke entered Havana harbour on Friday.
