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Coast Guard Tails Russian Spy Ship Off Coast of Hawaii

The Soviet-era ship was spotted lurking near the site of several U.S. naval bases.

The U.S. Coast Guard announced Thursday that it had detected a Russian intelligence-gathering ship operating off the coast of Hawaii. The Russian Navy ship Kareliya, a Vishnya-class intelligence vessel, was spotted approximately 15 miles south of Oahu on Oct. 29. While the ship’s presence was legal, operating just outside the 12-mile territorial sea limit as permitted by international law, its presence prompted a swift response from the Coast Guard, which dispatched an aircraft and a cutter to “monitor” the ship’s progress. Officials insisted the matter was a routine process. “The U.S. Coast Guard routinely monitors maritime activity around the Hawaiian Islands and throughout the Pacific to ensure the safety and security of U.S. waters,” said Capt. Matthew Chong, chief of response for the Coast Guard Oceania District. First deployed in the 1980s, Vishnya-class ships were built for signals intelligence during the Soviet era, and the new incident marks the third time Kareliya has been spotted loitering near U.S. waters. The vessel was previously spotted off the coast of Hawaii in 2021 and 2022, near where several major naval bases are located.