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The tense East-West standoff in Ukraine could reach a new level of escalation: underwater. According to a report from the Russian newspaper Izvestia, the United States Navy's marine mammal unit will be deployed to the Black Sea this summer, where American dolphins and sea lions could find themselves nose-to-nose with their Russian counterparts.

The paper reports that according to a statement by Tom LaPuzza, spokesman for the U.S. Navy's marine mammals program, twenty dolphins and ten sea lions will be in the Black Sea for one-to-two weeks this summer, conducting NATO exercises in a body of water that is traditionally been dominated by the Russian navy.

The dolphins will be testing a new anti-radar system, created to "disorientate enemy sonars", said LaPuzza. While the dolphins are doing that, the sea lions will be trained to "look for mines and naval divers." According to the paper, they also allegedly plan to test out new dolphin armor developed at the University of Hawaii. This will be NATO's first use of militarized sea creatures.

This trip could also mark the first meeting of Russian and American sea creatures. Russia and the United States are the only countries known to have militarized dolphins at this time. Crimean dolphins, which were owned by Ukraine before Russia recently acquired (well, stole) them, have trained in the Black Sea previously. Since Russia is revamping the Sevastopol dolphin training center, it is extremely likely the Black Sea will be home to both sea creature units at the same time this summer.