Moments ago, sources just confirmed to CNN that the United States has seized an oil tanker

that had been linked to Venezuela. Now, Russia is responding to this seizure, saying they are the

owners of this vessel. The Trump administration has not acknowledged the Russian status,

claiming the ship to be stateless, but nevertheless, you can see the sensitive nature of the situation. The Trump administration has not acknowledged the Russian status claiming the ship to be stateless,

but nevertheless, you can see the sensitive nature of the situation. Russia had sent ships to track and maybe even protect this vessel over the last 24 hours.

The United States has been tracking it across the Atlantic. It's the same ship that the Coast Guard had tried to seize last month near Venezuela.

They were unable to board it, and the ship changed course and fled. But now, the breaking news,

the United States has seized it. Tracking this ship as it came into the Northern Atlantic,

it's been heading sort of skirting wide of Ireland, heading up towards Iceland and that sort of gap

to go towards the north of Russia, the Arctic Circle. Marine tracking experts believe a vessel

of this size was likely headed towards Mamanx. That was the track that it was on, but that

all came to a sudden screeching halt about two and a half hours ago. Marine

trackers noticing that the ship turned direction at that moment. And this really comports

with the information we're getting now that the ship has been seized by US military and coast guard.

It has been tracked closely by them, as we say, since it fled the coast of Venezuela

about two weeks ago. What makes this even more interesting, if you will? The ship, when it started

its journey two weeks ago, was called the Bella One. Halfway along that route, it changed its

name to the Marinera and reflagged itself as Russian.

Not clear why. Were they trying to get protection from Russia? Was it always Russian unclear?

The port that it appeared to be headed for in the past couple of days does appear to have been a Russian port.

But now that ship has turned around, no longer heading north for the last couple of hours, heading south.

Not clear where it will end up.

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