Ukraine has dealt Vladimir Putin a chastening blow.
The Russian president’s alleged private holiday residence in the southern Russian region of Gelendzhik on the Black Sea coast is thought to have cost north of $1 billion, is mired in controversy, and has become a symbol of the corrupt decades of Putin’s rule.
The Residence at Cape Idokopas, an Italianate complex, known widely as “Putin’s Palace,” is surrounded by a square-mile no-fly zone and a broader 27-square-mile buffer zone.
Ukraine has now chipped away at that safety net, striking Putin’s S-400 “Triumph” anti-aircraft missile launch pad, which was left “ablaze and sputtering for three hours,” Ukraine’s unmanned systems forces Major Robert Brovdi said, according to the Telegraph.
The system was built to shoot down drones, missiles, and aircraft, but Brovdi said it had since been repurposed to fire missiles at Ukrainian cities. He added it had been used as such on Saturday.
This is particularly painful for Kyiv as Ukraine has a shortage of Patriot missile defense systems, which are designed to intercept incoming missiles and drones.
The shortage comes from Ukraine’s European partners having too few to donate, while the U.S. is running low due to its war in the Middle East with Iran. Politico reports that only 29 ballistic missiles out of 195 fired at Ukraine in July were intercepted.
“Over the last few months, Russia fires more missiles a week at us than we get from partners over months,” former Ukrainian Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov said.
Russia is pressing this advantage, using the Gelendzhik instalation to capitalize on Ukraine’s vulnerability.
Speaking to the Telegraph, University of Oslo missile expert Fabian Hoffmann said: “While less accurate and lethal, they still represent a threat to civilian infrastructure, particularly when launched at densely populated areas.”
Putin’s movement between his residences has become a source of intrigue during the war.
Sources cited by The Financial Times and Russian outlet IStories claimed in May that the 73-year-old has stopped visiting some of his boltholes around the country and had instead opted for the safety of specific compounds and bunkers to conduct his war.
Radio Free Europe reported in March that he was using three separate bunkers that all looked identical due to his paranoia about assassination attempts and long-range drone strikes.
The latest strikes come amid a consistent blitz being carried out by Kyiv, which has struck key logistics and energy hubs around Russia.
Images of huge columns of smoke above e-commerce centers and oil refineries have circulated widely, while several Russians are thought to have been arrested and forced to apologize for taking the images.
The ownership of Putin’s Palace has long been a source of controversy. Putin insists that the immensely expensive compound does not belong to him, and was not built for him specifically in 2005.
In 2021, Russian oligarch Arkady Rotenberg, a close pal of Putin, claimed that the palace belonged to him, not Putin, after a video by Kremlin critic and political activist Alexei Navalny exploring alleged corruption around it went viral in Russia.
The video alleged a $1.37 billion price tag and said it was the product of “the largest bribe in history.”
During the video, Navalny says “[They] built a palace for their boss with this money,” and claimed that the FSB owns 27 square miles around the complex, according to the BBC.
Navalny’s team released the video after he was arrested. He later died in a prison camp in Siberia in 2024.
