The deadly US-registered speedboat shooting incident in Cuba carries the potential to ignite a serious conflict between Cuba and the United States, amid an ongoing investigation into exactly what happened overseen by the White House.
Russia has reacted, on Thursday laying quick blame on the US side for a 'deliberate' act of 'provocation' in order to keep up the pressure on Havana and escalate the situation.
Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told TASS, "It is an aggressive US provocation, aimed at escalating the situation and triggering conflict."
Moscow has always been a close powerful ally of Cuba, and so it's expected that the Kremlin quickly come to Cuba's side, also after Russian officials vehemently condemned the US raid on Venezuela and Maduro's capture.
The Cuban version of events is that a speedboat out of Florida entered its sovereign waters and that when a Cuban patrol boat approached, people on board opened fire. The Cuban soldiers then fired back, killing four people and wounding six aboard the US vessel.
Notably, Havana has said the commander of the Cuban border patrol boat was injured. The Cuban government described the incident as a "foiled armed infiltration" of the island-nation.
Meanwhile, Secretary of State Marco Rubio has vowed to quickly get to the bottom of what happened, also as some US politicians have demanded that Cuba be crushed because of the assault.
"What I’m telling you is we’re going to find out exactly what happened and who was involved," Rubio said. "We’re not going to just take what somebody else tells us. I’m very confident we will be able to know the story independently."
The Trump administration's current posture toward Cuba is geared toward increasing pressure on Havana and ridding the island of communism, for which grinding sanctions have long been in place - which have by and large hurt the common people.
Rubio: "It is highly unusual to see shootouts in open sea like that."
Secretary Rubio said no US government personnel were involved in the shooting, telling reporters it is "highly unusual to see shootouts in open sea like that, it's not something that happens every day" https://t.co/CtJpGXuTR0
— Benjamin Alvarez (@BenjAlvarez1) February 26, 2026
A key question remains of how the administration frames the narrative around the maritime incident, whether it uses it to shape public opinion, and whether this marks the early stages of a new narrative that supports future intervention to topple the communist leadership of Cuba.
