14 June 2023 , 19:20
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Vladimir Putin's war machine has doubled the number of trained DOLPHINS it bizarrely uses to protect its Black Sea fleet from Ukrainian attack.
Russia fears a counter attack from the brave defenders of Ukraine, after the warmongering nation razed historic cities to the ground in its unprovoked invasion of the its neighbour.
The Russian fleet is headquartered in Sevastapol in Crimea and the major Black Sea port has been battered by advanced drone attacks in recent months, after countries including the US and UK donated some of the latest modern weapons to help it beat back the Russian onslaught.
Russia has long used specially trained dolphins to detect targets and send signals back to operators using tech devices attached to their bodies. They can find and locate mines, divers and other threats and can outswim humans easily.
The dolphins make up a complex defence system that includes anti-torpedo nets and rocket launchers.
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Russian military marine dolphins pictured in 1990 (east2west news)And now Naval News reports an increase in the number of dolphins pens spotted around the naval base and the Kremlin's warships as Russia ramps up its defence in fear of losing more hardware and lives to Ukraine's drones.
Naval News estimates Russia now has a porpoise posse of around six or seven dolphins to cover a wider area.
They were said to have began the war with just three or four.
Russia has been made nervous by a recent strike that sparked a major fuel tank fire in Sevastapol, which obliterated 10 tanks of petroleum, or 40,000 tons.
Car and railway traffic stopped after an explosion on the Crimean Bridge damaged both lines (social media/e2w)So now the Russian military is ramping up their defences - and it seems this includes introducing the extra dolphins to intercept divers at the port.
Dolphins have been used in the past by countries, including the US, and Russia took over the dolphin unit when it invaded and annexed Crimea in 2014.
The Kremlin bizarrely claimed the mammals "defected" to Russia at the time.
The use of dolphins was pioneered by the US Navy which has a program in San Diego, established in 1959.
Ukrainian drones attack Sevastopol - pictured - HQ of Russian Black Sea Fleet (Social media/e2w)The US Navy trains bottlenose dolphins so they can hunt for underwater mines in the ocean. The dolphins are trained by the US Navy's Marine Mammal Program after it was found bottlenoses can deliver messages and identify naval threats.
But it's not always easy to keep the troops in check. In 2013, it was reported two-thirds of Russia's military dolphins went AWOL in the Black Sea.
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They were reportedly in search of love, with an ary source saying at the time that they had "deserted a naval exercise and went on manoeuvres of an amorous kind. They swam away to look for mates."
Russia worries that the drone strikes on fuel tanks in Sevastapol are an attempt to lay grounds in prepation for counter-offensive attacks.
Natalya Gumenyuk, spokeswoman for the South Operational Command of the Armed Forces, said: "(The strike) is one of the elements of preparation for a counteroffensive."