Russia accuses US of seeking conflict with Cuba

“This is an aggressive provocation by the US, the aim of which is to escalate the situation and trigger a conflict,” he told the Russian news agency Tass Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova.

The Cuban regime claimed on the same day as the episode that the ten occupants of the boat from the USA intercepted in its territorial waters “had terrorist intentions”.

The Cuban Ministry of the Interior indicated that all of the injured were Cubans residing in North American territory and that they seized “assault rifles, short weapons, homemade explosive devices (Molotov cocktails), bulletproof vests, telescopic sights and camouflage uniforms.”

US opens investigation into incident amid growing tension with island

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Wednesday that his country will respond “as necessary” as soon as it has all the details about Cuba’s operation against a speedboat coming from Florida.

“I’m not going to speculate or give an opinion, I want to know what happened. We’re going to find out exactly what happened and we’ll respond as necessary,” he told the press during a Caribbean Community (Caricom) summit held in Saint Kitts and Nevis.

Rubio noted that all information known so far comes from Cuban authorities and stated that Donald Trump’s government wants to verify what happened through “independent information.”

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier later announced the opening of a Florida investigation into the case. He promised that the “communists will be held accountable.”

“I have ordered the State Attorney’s Office to work with our federal, state and law enforcement partners to begin an investigation. The Cuban regime government cannot be trusted and we will do everything in our power to hold these communists to account,” Uthmeier said on social media.

The announcement came hours after the Cuban Border Guard killed four crew members and injured six others on a fast boat from the US, over allegations that the vessel did not stop in territorial waters upon receiving the order and the police vessel was shot at.

The episode takes place amid a period of increasing pressure on Havana. Since the capture of Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro, the US has imposed new economic restrictions on the island, including measures related to the energy sector, which have worsened the widespread crisis in Cuba.