Kathrine Frich
The sprawling estate features a hockey rink, a private church, a massive cinema, and an infamous aqua disco.
When a national leader builds a secret coastal getaway, security is usually the top priority.
Heavy weapons circle the perimeter to keep unwanted visitors away. But even the tightest defensive bubbles can pop.
Taking down the shield
Ukrainian forces systematically dismantled the heavy air defenses guarding the Black Sea coast near Gelendzhik. This specific stretch of coastline houses a sprawling luxury compound that is widely known around the world as the private palace of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The protective net fell apart in two distinct phases. According to The Moscow Times cited by Digi24, the first blow landed on August 7 against a massive electronic warfare unit.
That jamming setup, called the Volna Kupol Garant, blocks satellite signals over a huge area. Military analyst Yan Matveiev noted that while the equipment stops drones effectively, it looks like a “small military base and can be easily identified from the air.”
Clearing the sky
Knocking out the signal jammer created a blind spot in the local airspace. Ukrainian drones quickly flew through that fresh opening to target an S-400 missile battery located just 500 meters away.
The missile launcher took a direct hit on the night of August 9. Robert Brovdi, a Ukrainian commander who leads unmanned systems units, reported that the battery had been firing six missiles simultaneously before it exploded.
The resulting fire burned for three hours. Analyzing the aftermath, Matveiev offered a blunt assessment of the new reality on the coast.
“Satellite images show the destruction of at least one launcher. Now Putin’s palace is left unprotected,” the military analyst stated in reports cited by Digi24.
A billionaire’s playground
The vast coastal property sits roughly 20 kilometers outside the city of Gelendzhik. It gained massive global fame when the late opposition leader Alexei Navalny published a deep, detailed investigation into the heavily guarded compound.
His team exposed a property packed with wild luxuries. The sprawling estate features a hockey rink, a private church, a massive cinema, and an infamous aqua disco.
Russian security forces enforce a strict no-fly zone above the main building. The surrounding land reportedly belongs directly to federal security agents, creating a massive buffer zone around the compound.
Building the seaside fortress cost an estimated 100 billion rubles. With its heavy military shield finally broken, the sprawling compound suddenly looks incredibly vulnerable from the sky.
Sources: The Moscow Times, Digi24
