From Khrushchev's own words (27 October 1962) [1]:

> Your missiles are located in Britain, are located in Italy, and are aimed against us. Your missiles are located in Turkey.

> You are disturbed over Cuba. You say that this disturbs you because it is 90 miles by sea from the coast of the United States of America. But Turkey adjoins us; our sentries patrol back and forth and see each other. Do you consider, then, that you have the right to demand security for your own country and the removal of the weapons you call offensive, but do not accord the same right to us? You have placed destructive missile weapons, which you call offensive, in Turkey, literally next to us. How then can recognition of our equal military capacities be reconciled with such unequal relations between our great states? This is irreconcilable.

According to General Boris Surikov [2]:

> 'Khrushchev and his Defence Minister, Rodion Malinovsky, were at Khrushchev's estate on the Black Sea. They went for a walk and Malinovsky pointed in the direction of Turkey and said: 'That's where the American rockets are pointing at us. They need only 10 minutes to reach our cities, but our rockets need 25 minutes to reach America.' Khrushchev thought for a while and then said: 'Why don't we instal our rockets in Cuba and point them at the Americans? Then we'll need only 10 minutes, too.'

This article goes on to quote the Soviet Ambassador to Cuba, Alexander Alexeyev, who was a direct witness and a go-between between Khrushchev and Castro:

> 'On 14 May 1962 I was called to a meeting of the Defence Council at the Kremlin. Khrushchev said, in effect: 'Comrades, I think it would be a good idea to instal rockets in Cuba. Do it clandestinely. I don't want it known in the US until November (after the mid-term Congressional elections). Alexander Alexeyev, how will Fidel react when we present him with our decision?'

[1]: https://microsites.jfklibrary.org/cmc/oct27/doc4.html

[2]: https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/the-cuban-missile-crisi...

>From Khrushchev's own words (27 October 1962):

That dosen't refute anything from his own words as a justification as opposed to his primary goal to provide Cuba with defence here to deter a US invasion. As others have pointed out, the USSR was annoyed by these placements in Italy and Turkey earlier, but they did not declare war or start a crisis over it beforehand. It's more that Turkey was a bargaining chip here.

>>Our aim has been and is to help Cuba, and no one can dispute the humanity of our motives, which are oriented toward enabling Cuba to live peacefully and develop in the way its people desire.

You need to place here in context that the Jupiter missiles in Turkey were already obselete but the US had the overwhelming advantage in a nuclear strike with their Atlas ICBMs in USA at the time, relying more on a fleet of intercontinental bombers that could targeted by NORAD.

Removing nukes for Turkey did little to change the strategic calculus, but it did heavily deprive the USSR of an opportunity to change that calculus with Cuban nukes at the time, which was a major factor in Kruschev's later removal from power.