Vladimir Putin has demolished his favourite Black Sea holiday villa, where regular Ukrainian drone attacks have made the area dangerous to visit.
Satellite images published by the Russian opposition website Proekt showed a gaping hole in the ground where Putin’s dacha near Sochi had once stood.
“He has stopped flying to Sochi out of fear for his own life. The president fears drone attacks,” Proekt said in commentary underneath the photos. “The site of the dacha is now a pit.”
Proekt, which is run by Russian journalists living in exile, specialises in investigations into the Kremlin. It published a “before and after” pair of satellite images showing the dacha in May 2023 and May 2024.
In the May 2023 photo, the large red-roofed dacha – typically a summer house for Russians – is clearly visible. It is set slightly back from the Black Sea in sprawling grounds that include several outbuildings.
Putin is paranoid about being assassinated and has reduced his travel commitments since he invaded Ukraine in 2022. He prefers to travel by armoured train if possible and has cut air travel.
Data from the Kremlin showed that he used to spend as many as 37 days a year in the dacha, hosting foreign guests and celebrating birthdays with his secret lover, the Russian gymnast Alina Kabaeva, and their two young sons.
But Ukrainian drones have been striking Sochi with increasing frequency over the past 12 months. This has appears to have spooked Putin, who has only visited Bocharov Ruchey once this year, in March to host Rafael Gossi, head of the UN’s atomic agency.
