US Coast Guard tracking Russian ‘intelligence gathering ship’ off Hawaii

The US Coast Guard has been tracking a Russian vessel “believed to be an intelligence gathering ship” off the coast of Hawaii in recent weeks.

The US Coast Guard has been tracking a Russian vessel “believed to be an intelligence gathering ship” off the coast of Hawaii in recent weeks, officials said Wednesday.

The US Coast Guard has been tracking a Russian vessel “believed to be an intelligence gathering ship” off the coast of Hawaii in recent weeks.

The ship and other foreign-flagged military vessels have been “operating and loitering” in Coast Guard District Fourteen‘s area of response.

“As part of our daily operations, we track all vessels in the Pacific area through surface and air assets and joint agency capabilities,” Commander Dave Milne, chief of External Affairs, said in a statement.

Video released on Tuesday showed the ship in waters off the Hawaiian coast on January 11.

"In recent weeks, the US Coast Guard has continued to monitor a Russian vessel, believed to be an intelligence gathering ship, off the coast of the Hawaiian Islands," the Coast Guard says tonight, releasing this video of the Russian ship: pic.twitter.com/dOzYNW71T0

— Chris (@chrstphr_woody) January 19, 2023

Last September, the Honolulu-based Kimball encountered four Russian naval vessels and three Chinese ships during a routine patrol in the Bering Sea near Alaska.

Russian planes have also been tracked off the coasts of Alaska and Canada in recent months.

The month before that, Russian surveillance aircraft were detected twice in the North American ADIZ in a two-day period.

It came after Russia’s FSB security service said it had opened a criminal case against a US citizen suspected of espionage, as ties between Moscow and Washington disintegrate further over the Kremlin’s nearly year-long Ukraine offensive.

“The Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation initiated a criminal case against a US citizen on the grounds of a crime under the 276 ‘Espionage’ Article of the Criminal Code,” the FSB said.

“The American is suspected of collecting intelligence information in the biological sphere, directed against the security of the Russian Federation,” it added.

Russia’s FSB security service is cracking down on suspected espionage inside its borders.

It gave no further details.

Ties between Russia and the United States, already strained for years, have reached new lows since President Vladimir Putin sent troops to Ukraine last year.

Several Americans are currently in detention in Russia and both countries accuse each other of political arrests.

There have been several high-profile prisoner exchanges between Moscow and Washington.

Last month, Moscow freed US basketball start Brittney Griner — arrested for bringing cannabis oil into the country — in exchange for Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout.

Paul Whelan, a former US marine, was arrested in Russia in 2018 and given a 16-year sentence on “espionage charges”. He remains in prison.

— additional reporting by FOX News

Originally published as US Coast Guard tracking Russian ‘intelligence gathering ship’ off Hawaii