Dolphins trained in aquatic espionage are likely to stay in the Crimea, becoming a Russian pod rather than their former status as Ukrainian.
Sevastopol has had a marine mammal training programme since 1965. Dolphins have been trained to identify underwater obstacles, locate missing kit, and fight and even kill enemy frogmen.
Some believe they may also have been taught to attach limpet mines to enemy vessels by using their natural sonar to tell engine noise from enemy and Soviet submarines.
Only the Soviet and US navies are known to train dolphins and sea lions. But with the collapse of the Soviet Union, the training school fell on hard times and eventually became a tourist attraction and centre for therapeutic swimming in the 1990s.
Ukraine relaunched the military programme in 2012, and the dolphins there now quickly became proficient at marking lost weapons and underwater obstacles with buoys.
Now with Russia at the helm of Crimea, it looks increasingly likely that the dolphin combat pod will have to rely on the Russian navy for food and training.
