Putin’s Yacht Graceful, Previously Escorted from the Baltic Sea by a Destroyer, Now in the North Sea
The yacht Graceful, which U.S. authorities have linked to Russian President Vladimir Putin, has relocated from the Baltic Sea to Severomorsk, the home port of Russia’s Northern Fleet.
Danish public broadcaster DR reported the move based on an analysis of satellite imagery and MarineTraffic vessel-tracking data.
According to DR, Graceful passed through Danish waters as part of a convoy escorted by the Russian destroyer Severomorsk and accompanied by a third Russian support vessel of the Voevoda-class.
On June 28, the group of vessels, with the yacht protected by anti-drone netting, left the Baltic Sea and was spotted approaching Danish waters.
For the first time since August 2022, Graceful reactivated its Automatic Identification System (AIS) in June 2026. The yacht initially listed Istanbul as its destination.
On June 30, 2026, the yacht switched off its AIS transponder in the Skagerrak Strait. After crossing the Baltic and North Seas, the Voevoda briefly reappeared on AIS on July 5, approximately 70 km from the naval port of Murmansk.
Before departing from its previous location near St. Petersburg, Graceful and its accompanying vessels had remained moored or operated exclusively within the Baltic Sea.
A specially constructed facility has also been built in the town of Lomonosov, near St. Petersburg, to provide a concealed berth for a yacht believed to belong to Vladimir Putin.
In satellite imagery of the port, Danish media outlet DR identified a vessel that it compared with technical specifications and design images from H2 Yacht Design – the company that designed Graceful – to determine whether Putin’s superyacht was docked in Severomorsk.
The vessel’s length and beam, along with distinctive features such as the helipad location and the yacht’s uniquely shaped bow, match the information provided by the company behind Graceful.
According to Russia expert Flemming Splidsboel Hansen, one possible explanation is that Putin wanted the yacht moved safely away from St. Petersburg because Ukraine has developed drones and missiles capable of striking a wider range of targets than before.
“My assessment is that the Ukrainians have the capability to attack a target such as this vessel. We have seen drone strikes deep inside Russian territory, including along the Baltic Sea coast in St. Petersburg,” Flemming Splidsboel Hansen, a senior researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies, said.
