Satellite imagery captured Russian warships docked in Havana on Thursday, July 13, as the Northern Fleet detachment began an unofficial port visit less than 100 miles from the US coast, following a missile exercise at sea.Satellite imagery collected by Maxar Technologies at 12:14 pm local time on June 13 showed the Russian warships in dock in Havana, where they arrived a day earlier.Close-up views of the port by the ferry terminal showed the frigate Admiral Gorshkov and Yasen-class nuclear submarine Kazan, along with an oil tanker, the Pashin, and rescue tug Nikolai Chiker, Maxar said.Russia’s defense ministry said the Northern Fleet detachment had arrived in Havana a day earlier and would remain in port for several days on an unofficial visit, allowing the crews to “have some rest and visit local [sights].”The Gorshkov and Kazan had completed a military exercise earlier in the day, the Ministry of Defense said in a July 12 Telegram post, with the pair practicing “the use of high-precision missile weapons by computer simulation against naval targets representing ship groups of the mock enemy” at sea.Admiral Gorshkov, commissioned in 2018, and the three-year-old submarine Kazan both carry older Kalibr and Onyx missile systems, along with the recently adopted Zirkon nuclear-capable hypersonic cruise missiles, according to Moscow.The fast-attack submarine USS Helena made what US Southern Command called a routine port visit to nearby Guantanamo Bay in Cuba on Thursday, as Washington downplayed the Russian presence.National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told reporters the White House was watching “closely, carefully,” but stressed that Russian naval deployments had sailed into Cuba under the Bush, Obama, and Trump administrations.Southern Command said the Helena’s visit was “previously planned,” but US media reported that Navy ships and warplanes were deployed to monitor Russian activity in Cuba.Cuba said last week that the visit was “consistent with the historically friendly relations existing between Cuba and the Russian Federation” and none of the vessels were carrying nuclear weapons. Credit: ©2024 Maxar Technologies via Storyful