MOSCOW, September 9. /TASS/. The Russian Defense Ministry published data on the Soviet citizens, who died in Cuba during the Caribbean crisis - the acute confrontation between the Soviet Union and the U.S.

On Friday, the ministry posted on its website the information, according to which the losses made 64 people.

"The exact number of the Soviet military who died in the operation has not been published," the ministry said. "According to the Defense Ministry’s information between August 1, 1962 and August 16, 1964, in Cuba 64 Soviet citizens died."

55 years earlier, on September 9, 1962, in a secret operation dubbed Anadyr the Soviet Union delivered to Cuba first ballistic missiles, and later on the USSR supplied the nuclear warheads for them. The operation in August-October 1962 was a response to deployment of the U.S. missiles in Turkey and Italy as well as to the threat of the U.S. military intervention in Cuba. The growth of the Soviet military presence in Cuba, which is only 200km from the U.S., caused the Caribbean crisis - a dramatic aggravation of the Soviet-American military and political relations in the Cold War, which put the world on the brink of a nuclear conflict between the two countries.

Soviet military, who participated in the Anadyr operation, were decorated with state awards.