By Javier Herrera
HAVANA TIMES – On the cloudy morning of June 12, a Russian naval squadron arrived at the port of Havana. The fleet is composed of the frigate Gorshkov, the nuclear submarine Kazan, and two support ships — the tanker Pashin and the salvage tug Nikolai Chiker. This visit was announced by the Cuban Foreign Ministry last week in a statement indicating that the docking would occur between June 12 and 17.
The visit takes place amid one of the worst military and political scenarios worldwide. Just a few days ago, the US government gave Ukraine the green light to use US-made weapons to attack targets within Russian territory. Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin responded by saying he could arm his allies with long-range rockets and missiles as a counterbalance to Western support for Ukraine.
If we analyze the current geopolitical context, we can conclude that the world is closer than ever to a third World War, if we are not already immersed in it, with conflicts still being fought at low-intensity levels. A world war that could represent the end of humanity, at least as we know it.
On one side, we have Russia, which has invaded Ukraine while threatening several neighboring countries, bringing maritime borders in the Black and Baltic Seas into discussion.
Lithuania, Latvia, and Poland have expressed their willingness to participate in the so-called “coalitions of capability” to support Ukraine in various areas. France has even been mentioned as a leader of a coalition that would conduct training tasks on Ukrainian soil, with Emmanuel Macron having defended on more than one occasion the possibility of deploying troops in Ukraine, under the premise that “Russia cannot win this war.”
In Asia, China constantly threatens the territorial integrity of Taiwan and claims it belongs to the People’s Republic of China, while North Korea plays with launching inte
