• US Coast Guard is tracking a suspected Russian spy ship in international seas off the coast of Hawaii.
• This is not the first time suspected Russia spy ships have sailed off the U.S. coast.
• The USCG noted the situation is not unusual but that it is tracking it closely.

In light of the ongoing high tensions between Washington and Moscow over Russia’s war in Ukraine, the US Coast Guard reports that it is tracking a suspected Russian spy ship in international seas off the coast of Hawaii.

“In recent weeks, the U.S. Coast Guard has continued to monitor a Russian vessel, believed to be an intelligence gathering ship, off the coast of the Hawaiian Islands,” the USCG said in a news release.

The Coast Guard noted the situation is not unusual but that it is tracking it closely. “While foreign military vessels may transit freely through the U.S. economic exclusive zone (EEZ), as per customary international laws, foreign-flagged military vessels have often been observed operating and loitering within Coast Guard District Fourteen’s area of response,” the release stated.

This is not the first time suspected Russia spy ships have sailed off the coast of the United States. In 2019, a Russian spy ship off the southeastern coast of the United States was observed operating in what two US officials told Media was an “unsafe manner.”

The Viktor Leonov, a Russian surveillance ship operating off the coasts of South Carolina and Florida, was found to be acting in a dangerous manner because it failed to utilize running lights in bad weather and ignored commercial vessels’ attempts to contact in order to prevent accidents.

The USCG said in the release that it “continues to coordinate with Department of Defense partners, providing updates to foreign vessel movements and activities and to appropriately meet presence with presence to encourage international maritime norms.”

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