On Saturday, Havana residents watched from the shore as Russian warships arrived for the second time in two months. Cuba has described the visit as routine.

The ships fired shots into the air as a welcome gesture, while curious fishermen observed from Havana’s waterfront promenade. Russian residents were also among the early risers who witnessed the fleet’s arrival.

The patrol ship Neustrahimiy, training vessel Smolniy, and support vessels, all from the Baltic Fleet, are scheduled to depart on Tuesday.

The Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces issued a brief statement describing the arrival as routine.

The U.S. State Department and Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In June, a Russian frigate and support ships also displayed Moscow’s military presence in the port of Havana, which is less than 100 miles from Florida.

Tensions between the United States and Russia have escalated since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. U.S. officials say that Russian naval activity, while routine in the Atlantic, has increased due to U.S. support for Ukraine.

Simultaneously, relations between Cold War allies Russia and Cuba have significantly improved as the Communist-run country faces an economic crisis it blames primarily on U.S. sanctions.

High-level contacts between the two countries have increased to a level not seen since the fall of the former Soviet Union, Cuba’s benefactor. Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel has visited Moscow four times.

, flour, and increasing numbers of tourists are arriving in the cash- and goods-strapped Caribbean nation. Citizens are enduring daily power outages and other hardships, leading to scattered protests and record levels of migration.

Ana Garces, a 78-year-old retiree, told Reuters that she remembers the then-Soviet Union being the only country that assisted Cuba during the 1962 missile crisis, the peak of tensions with Washington that brought the world to the brink of nuclear war.

“We are very grateful,” she said. “Why should we not receive it with open arms? This is friendship. All kinds of ships have entered here.”

“It shows how other countries do support us and takes away a little of the world’s mentality about our country,” added her husband, 71-year-old retiree Rolando Perez.