Satellite images recorded by Maxar Technologies show two pens containing trained dolphins belonging to the Russian Navy in the Crimean port of Sevastopol, an important port on the Black Sea. Russia has deployed militant dolphins to protect its Black Sea naval base by preventing Ukrainian submarine operations aimed at sabotaging Russian warships, according to USNI News, a US Navy news and analysis website. According to the report, the pens were transported to the naval base in February after Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. The Russian Navy is operating a Cold War-trained marine mammal program in Sevastopol, with units being transferred to the Ukrainian armed forces after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, USNI News reported. Russia regained the units after the annexation of Crimea in 2014 and has expanded its operations ever since, according to the report. Animals in marine mammal programs – from dolphins and beluga whales to sea lions and seals – are trained to find enemy swimmers and detect bottom mines and moored landmines, according to HI Sutry dolphins in Sevastopol. Four countries are known to carry out such military programs, including the United States, Russia, Israel and North Korea, according to Sutton.
