Russia says boat incident near Cuba is 'aggressive provocation' by US

Russia's foreign ministry spokeswoman said on Thursday that an incident with a Florida-registered speedboat off the coast of Cuba was an ‘aggressive provocation by the United States’ aimed at escalating the situation and triggering a conflict, state-owned TASS news agency reported.

Cuban forces killed four exiles and wounded six others who sailed into Cuban waters aboard a speedboat on Wednesday and opened fire on a Cuban patrol, the Cuban government said at a time of heightened tensions with the United States.

"This is an aggressive provocation by the United States aimed at escalating the situation and detonating a conflict," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova was quoted as saying by TASS.

-Reporting by Reuters; Writing by Anastasia Teterevleva; editing by Guy Faulconbridge and Raju Gopalakrishnan/Reuters