Putin's yacht heads to the Arctic to dodge Ukrainian drone threat
Photo: The superyacht Graceful, which has ties to Putin (Getty Images)
The £100 million superyacht Graceful, which has been linked to Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, has begun leaving Europe due to the threat of Ukrainian drone attacks, reports The Telegraph.
According to maritime intelligence and satellite imagery, the 82-meter vessel is sailing along Norway's coastline and is expected to arrive at the Russian port of Murmansk (in the Arctic) in the coming days.
The yacht is covered with anti-drone netting and is being escorted by two Russian Navy vessels. It is being accompanied by the Udaloy-class destroyer Severomorsk and the Russian rescue patrol ship Voevoda, which has a displacement of 7,500 tons.
According to a senior NATO source, the convoy is being monitored by the Alliance, while German and Danish naval patrol ships escorted the vessels as they sailed through the Baltic Sea.
About the yacht
According to US government documents, Putin made numerous trips aboard the yacht, including a voyage across the Black Sea with Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko in 2021.
The vessel is equipped with seawater and freshwater swimming pools, a helipad, a gym, and secure communications systems for government use.
Seventeen days before Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the yacht was transferred from the Blohm & Voss shipyard in Hamburg, Germany, to Russia's Kaliningrad. Four months later, the United States sanctioned the vessel, forcing the yacht to change its name to Kosatka.
The vessel had remained hidden until last week and reappeared in public for the first time in four years.
Its Automatic Identification System transmitted information about its passage through the Danish Straits before the signal disappeared as it entered the North Sea on Monday.
Meanwhile, the escort vessel Voevoda continued transmitting its location while heading north past the Norwegian coast. According to The Telegraph, the convoy is sailing past the northern city of Tromsø before finally docking in Murmansk.
Why Putin moved the yacht
The media notes that just a week ago, Ukrainian drones struck the strategically important Russian naval base at Kronstadt on Kotlin Island, about 19 kilometers east of St. Petersburg.
The attack in the Gulf of Finland hit one of Moscow's few modern warships, the Boykiy, clearly demonstrating the vulnerability of Russia's fleet far from the front line in Ukraine.
According to satellite imagery, the naval base at Kronstadt appeared unusually empty after the Ukrainian strikes. Just a year earlier, in images from June 2025, there were at least nine more vessels at the base than in images taken this Wednesday.
In November, a similar attack targeted the frigates Gepard, Tatarstan, and Dagestan, which belong to the Kremlin. Small missile ships in the Caspian Sea, nearly 1,000 miles from Ukraine, were also attacked.
"With the realisation that Russia’s air defence was unable to prevent recent strikes, Putin is moving his prized assets out of the Baltic and back home to safety," the media concluded.
In 2023, the Dossier Center published an investigation claiming that the fleet linked to Russian president Vladimir Putin could include up to 10 yachts and support vessels.
The report also said that two additional vessels had been identified: the megayacht Victoria and the boat Orion.
