Ukraine's drone forces burned a long-range Russian S-400 air-defense system on the Black Sea coast and knocked out more air defenses, radars, and cargo ships in a single overnight raid, Unmanned Systems Forces (SBS) commander Robert "Madyar" Brovdi said. One of the struck batteries guarded the stretch of coast in the area of Putin's reported seaside palace.
The battery that guarded Putin's coast
Overnight on 8–9 August, Ukraine's Unmanned Systems Forces struck the S-400 Triumf system at Gelendzhik, on Russia's Krasnodar Krai coast of the Black Sea. The 413th Reid Regiment carried out the strike, and the position burned for three hours beside seaside catacombs, Brovdi wrote. Brovdi said the battery had fired six missiles on the morning of 8 August, between 9:25 and 12:51.
Gelendzhik sits on the Black Sea headland that holds the palace complex, long reported as Putin's private residence.
Ukraine drones hit Crimea’s S-300/S-400 near Kerch—and knocked out power across four occupied territories overnight
The regiment that torched the Gelendzhik battery had hunted these launchers before. Overnight on 6 July, during a Russian mass strike on Ukraine, the 413th Reid operators found and destroyed an S-400 launcher in Bryansk Oblast, the unit said. That launcher was firing ballistic missiles at ground targets. The regiment called Bryansk a standard launch area for ballistic missiles aimed at Kyiv, and said the strike saved Ukrainian civilian lives.
Four more systems down inside Russia
Ukrainian drones destroyed four more Russian air-defense assets the same night, all on Russian soil, Brovdi said. Crews hit a Tor system in Rostov Oblast and a Pantsir-S1 point-defense system at Yeysk in Krasnodar Krai. They also struck two radar stations in Rostov Oblast, the Podlyot-K1 and the Kasta 2E2. The 1st Separate Center of the drone forces ran the inland strikes, the Unmanned Systems Forces reported.
Three shadow-fleet ships hit at sea
At sea, the SBS drone pilots hit three vessels of Russia's shadow fleet in the Black Sea — one oil tanker and two dry-cargo ships. That fleet is the aging tankers and cargo ships that move Russian oil around Western sanctions. The 413th Reid Regiment and the 412th Nemesis Brigade carried out the strikes.
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Russia covered its Pantsir-S1 in camouflage. Ukraine’s naval platforms delivered the drones that burned it
