It was an "aggressive provocation by the US" when a US speedboat sailed into Cuban territorial waters, resulting in a deadly collision between those on board and Cuban border guards.
A Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson said this, according to the state-run Russian news agency Tass.
The incident took place on Wednesday morning local time.
Four people on board the US speedboat were shot and killed.
- This is an aggressive provocation by the US with the aim of escalating the situation and provoking a conflict, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said, according to Tass.
After the US boat was registered in Cuban territorial waters, the border guard asked the boat to identify itself.
According to Cuba's Interior Ministry, the speedboat's crew then fired shots at the vessel carrying border guards, wounding a Cuban officer.
The Cuban coast guard returned fire, killing four people on the speedboat, the ministry said earlier Thursday. Six were wounded.
The ministry later said the people on the boat were all Cubans living in the United States. They were reportedly armed with automatic weapons, handguns and Molotov cocktails.
The six survivors of the speedboat have told Cuban authorities that they intended to carry out an infiltration operation for terrorist purposes, Cuba's Interior Ministry said.
The speedboat is registered in the US state of Florida.
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier has asked the state attorney general to cooperate with federal and state authorities in investigating the incident.
Uthmeier wrote this on the social media X late Wednesday evening Danish time.
- The Cuban government cannot be trusted, and we will do everything in our power to hold these communists accountable, he wrote.
The United States has a tense relationship with communist Cuba.
The relationship has become even more tense after the United States, in a military operation in Venezuela, captured a crucial ally of Cuba - namely the now ousted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
Following the capture, the United States stopped all oil exports from Venezuela to Cuba, which prompted several Caribbean countries to warn of the risk of an economic collapse in Cuba with possible consequences for security in the entire region.
However, on Wednesday the US relaxed its ban on oil exports from Venezuela.
/ritzau/
