You're reading: RIA Novosti: Ukraine’s ‘killer’ dolphins not killers, not gone

MOSCOW – Ukraine’s Defense Ministry vehemently denied Thursday that “killer” dolphins had escaped from their trainers as reported earlier this week, saying that none of the marine mammals in its care have fled, none of them are used for military purposes and the whole story of their escape was a hoax.

“Yesterday our military officials saw with their own eyes that all the dolphins are present in the oceanarium,” a Defense Ministry spokesman told RIA Novosti by telephone from Kiev, adding that the six dolphins – and one Steller sea lion – do not serve military purposes.

Earlier this week, Ukrainian media circulated a scanned document – identified as an internal report from the head of a military research institute – informing naval command that three dolphins equipped with firearms had escaped from their handlers to the open seas during a training session late last month.

On Tuesday, the ministry dismissed the document, dated February 24, as a “fake” and a “provocation.”

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