The Coast Guard of Canada has traded two vessels with a group of Russian-speaking crewmembers of the ship the TU-154 on the Norwegian coast, according to a news release from the service.
The two vessels, the Coast Guard-Russian Coast Guard and the Coast Guardsman-Russian Federation Coast Guard, were taken on board a Coast Guard vessel in international waters off the coast of Norway on January 19.
The Coast Guard said in the release that they were part of a routine exercise and that they had no reason to suspect foul play.
The crew had been aboard the T-154 since January 21.
The Coast Guardsmen are part of the Tatar Federation of International Maritime Services (TUIMS).
The Russian Coast Guard declined to comment.
The TU 154 is a Russian-flagged ship owned by the Russian State Duma, the Russian equivalent of parliament, and is about the same length as the U.S. destroyer USS Nitze, which was damaged in an incident off the west coast of Russia in 2017.
The U.K. Coast Guard reported on Monday that it had received reports of two vessels missing off the U-K.
in the North Sea.