Ukraine claims army of spy DOLPHINS died during ‘patriotic hunger strike’ after being captured by Russia – as Moscow hits back in the weirdest way
The highly-trained underwater assets refused to be flipped by their captors following Moscow's controversial annexation of the Crimea in 2014
DOLPHINS trained by the Ukrainian military died "patriotically" after going on hunger strike when they were seized by the Russians, according to a top official.
The highly-trained underwater assets refused to be flipped by their captors following Moscow's controversial annexation of the Crimea in 2014.
As the claims emerged, Russia appeared to hit back in the strangest way possible.
A Russian security source accused the Ukraine of using "illegal nets" and fishing boats to poach marine life - including almost 50 dolphins - from the Russian coast.
He said: "Border guards managed to release 161 flounder, four crabs and three black sea sharks - but 46 dolphins died."
In the 1970s Ukraine's bottlenose dolphins were trained to carry out marine missions and were capable of planting bombs on ships and attacking divers with guns strapped to their heads.
The Ukrainian military had been developing the secretive unit based in Sevastapol on the Crimean Peninsula,
Borys Babin, the Ukrainian government's representative in Crimea, revealed they had died and claimed they did so while refusing to follow orders or eat food provided by the "Russian invaders".
“The dolphins, trained by the (Ukrainian) naval forces in Sevastopol, would communicate with their trainers through special whistles,” he said.
“The trained animals refused not only to interact with the new Russian coaches, but refused food and died some time later.
"Many Ukrainian soldiers took their oath and loyalty much less seriously than these dolphins."
It's been reported the Russian military was trying to train the dolphins to "fight" for them.
A source told Russian state news agency RIA Novosti that engineers were “developing new aquarium technologies for new programmes to more efficiently use dolphins underwater”.
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Russian Duma deputy Dmitry Belik has claimed all the combat dolphins that served in the naval forces of Ukraine had been sold to commercial entities or died of natural causes.
“There can be no talk about any Ukrainian patriotism with regards to the combat dolphins because under Ukraine, the special forces dolphins… were involved entirely in commercial activities, not underwater operations,” he said.
The crew of YaMK-0041, the boat Russia is accusing of poaching dolphins, was detained and the captain faces up to five years in jail if convicted of poaching.
"The detention of the Ukrainian ship prevented major damage to the Black Sea's ecology,” said the FSB.
“Crimean border guards pulled over 9,300 metres (30,500 ft) of fishing nets out of the sea and saved 161 olive flounder, three dogfish sharks, and four green crabs.
“They were returned to their natural habitat.”
The Ukrainian crew were detained two weeks ago but an announcement on the dolphin slaughter was delayed by the Russians for unknown reasons.