Vladimir Putin’s navy is using dolphins to protect a key Crimean port, British defence chiefs said on Friday.
They believed that the number of floating mammal pens in the harbour, which “highly likely contain bottle-nosed dolphins”, has been nearly doubled.
The dolphins are thought to have been deployed to detect divers, underwater mines and other threats.
In its latest intelligence update, the Ministry of Defence in London said: “Since summer 2022, the Russian Navy has invested in major enhancements to the security of the Black Sea Fleet’s main base at Sevastopol.
“This includes at least four layers of nets and booms across the harbour entrance. In recent weeks, these defences have highly likely also been augmented by an increased number of trained marine mammals.”
The briefing added: “Imagery shows a near doubling of floating mammal pens in the harbour which highly likely contain bottle-nosed dolphins.
“In Arctic waters, the navy also uses Beluga whales and seals. Russia has trained animals for a range of missions, but the ones housed in Sevastopol harbour are highly likely intended to counter enemy divers.”
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s Air Force said air defences downed 13 Russian cruise missiles in the early hours of Friday that were headed towards a military airfield in the western Khmelnitskyi region.
The missiles had been launched by Russian strategic bombers from the Caspian Sea area, it said.
Ukraine’s Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal claimed that a counter-offensive against Vladimir Putin’s army had so far been a “success”.
Kyiv forces, though, are believed to be making slower progress than expected against organised Russian defences.
Mr Shmyhal, who was in London for the Ukraine Recovery Conference, told BBC radio: “The counter-offensive...can take time. It is not an easy walk. In the past two weeks, we have liberated more than 113 square kilometres (44 square miles) of our territory.
“And we go ... seven kilometres (four miles) into the deep of the front line of the occupied territory. So it is a success.”
Ukraine’s armed forces were reported to have halted a Russian offensive towards the cities of Kupiansk and Lyman in the east of the country, and to be advancing in the south, though these claims could not be independently verified.
Russia still holds swathes of territory in eastern and southern Ukraine, and Ukrainian forces have yet to push to the main defensive lines that Russia has had months to prepare.
