Alleged Russian 'spy ship' spotted near US soil, here's everything we know

The US Coast Guard (USCG) released a statement on Wednesday 18 January in which it made public the tracking of a Russian vessel, off the coast of Hawaii, which is under suspicion of being on an intelligence-gathering mission.

Heightened tensions

According to CNN, the presence of a suspected Russian spy ship near US soil comes as there are heightened tensions between the two superpowers over Russia’s war in Ukraine.

This is not the first time a suspicious Russian vessel has been spotted near the US. In 2019, a similar scenario took place when a Russian ship called ‘Viktor Leonov’ was sailing off the coast of South Carolina and Florida.

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Completely legal

The USCG states that, together with Department of Defense partners, they have been tracking the suspected Russian spy ship of the Hawaiian Islands since 11 January.

The USCG, as a branch of the US Armed Forces, is tasked with protecting the territorial waters and the exclusive economic zone of the country.

According to the Law of the Sea, an exclusive economic zone is part of international waters but grants the country special privileges to harness the area for economic purposes.

The US zone extends 200 nautical miles, or 230 miles, from US territorial waters, which are the maritime areas extending 12 nautical miles from a country’s beaches, The Washington Post reports.

On standard procedure, the USCG assigns surface and air assets to monitor the activity of all vessels in the Pacific, including the suspected vessel which has been first spotted earlier this month.

Notwithstanding the suspicion based on spying, the Russian ship has not broken any law as the presence of military ships of other countries in the US exclusive economic zone is neither illegal nor unusual.

Sources used:

-The USCoastGuard: ‘Coast Guard, partners tracking Russian vessel off Hawaiian Coast’

-TheWashingtonPost: ‘What to know about the suspected Russian spy ship seen near Hawaii’

-CNN: ‘US Coast Guard tracking suspected Russian spy ship off coast of Hawaii in international waters’