US Coast Guard Tracks Russian Intelligence Gathering Ship In Hawaii EEZ

Amid tensions between Washington and Moscow over the invasion of Ukraine, the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) says it is tracking the activities of a Russian vessel, which is allegedly involved in an intelligence-gathering operation off the coast of the Hawaiian Islands.

"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 14th District Hawaii and the Pacific said in a news release issued Wednesday.

Although the free transit of foreign military vessels passing through the U.S. economic exclusive zone (EEZ) is allowed as per customary international law, the news release said that the foreign-flagged military vessels have often been seen "operating and loitering" within the area of the response of Coast Guard District Fourteen.

District Fourteen patrols the Coast Guard's largest area of responsibility, according to a New York Post report, covering 14 million square miles of land and sea, with several units stationed in Hawaii and in American Samoa, Saipan, Guam, Singapore and Japan.

"The U.S. Coast Guard is currently monitoring the Russian vessel operating in the vicinity of Hawaii," USCG Cmdr. Dave Milne, chief of External Affairs, said in the statement. The USCG also released aerial footage of the suspected vessel.

"As part of our daily operations, we track all vessels in the Pacific area through surface and air assets and joint agency capabilities," Milne added.

"The Coast Guard operates in accordance with international laws of the sea to ensure all nations can do the same without fear or contest. This is especially critical to secure freedom of movement and navigation throughout the Blue Pacific," he further said.

As part of Homeland Security, the Coast Guard is the lead federal agency for at-sea enforcement of U.S. fisheries laws, while it also coordinates with the Defense Department to provide updates on foreign vessel movements and meeting presence with presence, the statement said.

This is not the first time suspected Russian spy ships have sailed off the coast of the United States. As reported in September 2022, a Coast Guard vessel on a routine patrol mission in the Bering Sea off Alaska had encountered a Chinese guided missile cruiser, which was later discovered to be operating along with two other Chinese naval vessels and four Russian Navy ships.

Earlier in 2019, a Russian surveillance ship, Viktor Leonov, was seen sailing off the coast of South Carolina and Florida in what officials told CNN was an "unsafe manner," because it was not responding to commercial vessels trying to communicate and was not using running lights in low visibility weather.