A bizarre Cold War throwback emerges as new intelligence claims Russia has deployed an “increased number” of military dolphins to its naval base in Crimea meant to attack human saboteurs.
Russia has been reinforcing its Black Sea naval base, says the United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defence (MOD), since the country launched another invasion of Ukrainian territory in 2022. While many of the defences deployed are conventional including nets and booms to catch torpedos, submarines, and surface ships, others are somewhat less so, including the deployment of military dolphins.
Ministry of Defence / Twitter
Satellite photos reveal, the MOD says, “a near doubling of floating mammal pens in the harbour” in recent weeks. These pens, they say are likely to be the home to bottle-nosed dolphins trained to “counter enemy divers”, in other words, to attack unauthorised visitors.
