Putin’s dolphin warfare squadron ‘is washed away by storm that hit Crimea’
Vladimir Putin is feared to have lost his dolphin warfare squadron in a ‘storm of the century’ that hit Crimea this week.
The specially trained anti-sabotage mammals were in service with the Russian Navy.
Reports say their sea shelters are missing from the port of Sevastopol after the storm hit the Black Sea coast, as well as floating barriers and barriers to protect against Ukrainian kamikaze drones.
The dolphins are trained for use against enemy divers who raid ports to plant limpet mines or for reconnaissance.
The mammals have learned to warn their human controllers – or launch deadly attacks with underwater guns, a war program that began in Soviet times.
Independent defense analyst HI Sutton said – based on satellite images – that after the “huge storm” ravaged Crimea on Monday and Tuesday, “preliminary analysis shows that the dolphin enclosures in the port of Sevastopol have disappeared.”
Vladimir Putin is feared to have lost his dolphin warfare squadron in a ‘storm of the century’ that hit Crimea this week. In the photo: the aftermath of the storm in the Bay of Sevastopol in Crimea
Russian Army trainers work with the marine mammals so they can protect valuable naval assets (file images)
“I’m 100% sure the dolphin pods are gone,” Sutton added.
He stated: “It is likely that some or all of the trained dolphins have been released.”
While this was “unconfirmed,” he said, “You have to remember that if the dolphins are indeed free, they were raised in captivity.
‘You can expect that they were dependent on their human trainers for food and may not have been able to fend for themselves. So escaping can be a death sentence.
‘It is possible that the Russian Navy moved the pens before the storm, but there is currently no evidence of this. I’m waiting for clearer images for further analysis.’
Last month there were reports that Putin had moved his war dolphins to Novozerne, 90 kilometers north, closer to where Ukrainian special forces raided and landed on the Crimean peninsula.
OSINT researcher HI Sutton had spotted dolphin pods here.
“The deployment is likely to defend against Ukrainian special forces who pose a real threat in the area,” the researcher reported in Naval News.
‘Trained dolphins are considered effective against military divers.
‘There is no man, no matter how athletic or well trained, who can beat them. And their built-in sonar gives them an even greater advantage.”
Still, it was ultimately unclear whether all the dolphins had been moved from Sevastopol, or just some, or none.
What is now clear is that the dolphin cages in Sebastopol have disappeared.
The bottlenose dolphin squadron was recruited by Putin when he captured Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.
“We had to start practically from scratch to teach the (mammals) to look for objects underwater, because the Ukrainian navy hardly cooperated with them,” a Russian source said at the time.
The huge storm hit the coast of Crimea on Monday and Tuesday
An archive photo of a battle dolphin, trained to patrol the seas and destroy underwater saboteurs, in full combat gear
Last month there were reports that Putin had moved his war dolphins to pens in Novozerne (pictured), 90 kilometers north, closer to where Ukrainian special forces raided and landed on the Crimean peninsula.
The dolphins are trained for use against enemy divers entering harbors to plant limpet mines or for reconnaissance (file image)
However, footage shows how dolphins have been trained to use underwater weapons since Soviet times.
Retired Captain Yury Plyachenko, a military trainer, explained: “The dolphin should have signaled and, if necessary, was ordered to destroy an underwater saboteur.
“It was armed with an underwater cannon.”
A Russian state television broadcast read: ‘This is what the underwater cannon looked like.
“It was attached to a dolphin with a special attachment and a mammal could shoot.”
Rare archive footage showed a dolphin attacking a diver.
“The man didn’t stand a chance in this fight,” viewers were told. ‘It was virtually impossible for a diver to reach ships and go unnoticed when dolphins were patrolling them.’
The military dolphin training program – long based in Sevastopol – dates back to the Cold War era of the 1970s, when the Soviet Union used the animals to search for mines or spy on foreign ships.
Russia has remained silent about the current role of its marine dolphins and how they have dealt with repeated explosions from Ukrainian missiles and air and sea drones in Sevastopol.
The storm also washed away defensive structures, including booms, used to protect the £3 billion Crimean Bridge from Ukrainian kamikaze drones, OSINT analyst Brady Africk said.
This means that the bridge could suddenly be vulnerable to another Ukrainian attack.
Africk also highlighted the missing dolphin cages.
“Recent storms over the Black Sea severely damaged Russian defenses at the entrance to the port of Sevastopol in Crimea,” he wrote on X.
‘The dolphin houses at the harbor entrance of Sevastopol have also disappeared as a result of the storms.’