RUSSIAN warships are coming to the Caribbean.
International media reported this week that the Russian warships and aircraft were expected to arrive in the Caribbean for a military exercise in the coming weeks. They are possibly to make port calls in Venezuela and Cuba.
They are expected to remain in the Caribbean throughout summer.
The Associated Press (AP) reported that the arrival of the ships was being tracked by the US as tensions rise over Western military support for Ukraine. The US government was not formally informed of the ships arrival, US officials told reporters on the condition of anonymity.
However, the exercise will be monitored by the US military and will involve a “handful” of Russian ships and support vessels, the two officials said.
Paid political announcement
This is not the first time that Russia has sent its ships to the Caribbean but this time are governments are being placed on high alert since Russian President Vladimir Putin has suggested that Moscow could take “asymmetrical steps” elsewhere in the world in response to President Joe Biden’s decision to allow Ukraine to use US provided weapons to strike inside Russia to protect Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city.
The exercise was certainly part of a broader Russian response to the US support for Ukraine, but it also is an effort by Putin to show his navy was still capable of global power projection after losing several ships to Ukrainian strikes, AP stated.
During the war between Russia and Ukraine, the Russian fleet has suffered most damages by Ukraine including the Moskva, the flagship of Moscow’s Black Sea fleet, which sank in April 2022 after Ukraine struck it with Neptune anti-ship missiles.
Paid political advertisement
The US officials also said that global militaries have the right to conduct exercises in international waters and do so regularly.
Presently, international reports are that the Black Sea Fleet is down to one third and continues to be hunted down by Ukraine drones.
