Drone strike sparks forest fire near Putin’s Black Sea Palace

On the morning of Aug. 28, a wildfire broke out in the area of the village of Krinitsa, approximately ten kilometers away from Vladimir Putin’s Black Sea palace near the southern Russian city of Gelendzhik. The mayor of Gelendzhik, Russia’s Emergency Situations Ministry (EMERCOM), and the Krasnodar regional crisis center confirmed the fact of the fire.

According to the authorities in Krasnodar, the blaze started “after the fall of drone debris,” presumably a reference to a downed Ukrainian UAV. By the morning of August 29, the blaze had spread to an area of 41.5 hectares.

Independent outlet Important Stories provided a more precise location of the fire, reporting that it may in fact be only 3–4 kilometers from the residence.