Putin Thought He Was UNTOUCHABLE… Then Something BAD Happened To His Palace

The Military Show

A Ukrainian drone crash-landed just 24 kilometers from Vladimir Putin’s lavish $1 billion palace in Gelendzhik, exposing the fragile illusion of a secure Russian rear. Coming after Kyiv’s record-breaking 2,500-kilometer strike on Siberia’s Omsk refinery, the incident highlights Ukraine's rapidly expanding long-range capabilities. As new drones bring deeper targets into reach, Putin’s promise to shield his populace has collapsed, driving the Russian leader deeper into hiding.  ⏱️ CHAPTERS: 00:00 - Ukrainian Drone Crashes Near Putin's Gelendzhik Palace 01:25 - Ukraine Expands Drone Strike Range to 3,000 Kilometers 02:40 - Long-Range Strikes Shatter Putin's "Safe Rear" Promise 04:00 - Kremlin Accuses Ukraine of Terrorism After Gelendzhik Incident 05:15 - Russian Air Defenses Shoot Down Drone Over Busy Beach 06:30 - Precision Ukrainian Military Targeting vs. Russian Attacks 07:50 - Kremlin Exploits Drone Incidents to Fuel Political Propaganda 09:05 - Ukrainian Drone Threat Forces Putin Into Underground Bunkers 10:20 - Gelendzhik Drone Incident Erodes Putin's Strongman Image 11:35 - Can Ukrainian Long-Range Drones Target Putin's Secret Residences?  Support us directly as we bring you independent, up-to-date reporting on military news and global conflicts by clicking here: https://www.youtube.com/@TheMilitaryShow/join  #militarystrategy #militarydevelopments #militaryanalysis #themilitaryshow  SOURCES: https://pastebin.com/89P843wV

Transcript

00:00Putin thought he was untouchable. When he launched his so-called special military operation,

00:05he knew with absolute certainty that Ukraine wouldn't be able to strike back.

00:09Even after the initial invasion failed, it wouldn't matter to Putin. Ukraine didn't have

00:14long-range weapons. The conflict would be contained on the territory of the nation Russia invaded,

00:19and that would be that. Oh, how times have changed. The untouchable leader is now well

00:25within reach, and with a single drone, Ukraine has just shown Putin that he can be struck at any

00:31time. We take you to Gelenzyk in the Krasnodar region. This stunning estate, which overlooks

00:36the Black Sea and has cost Putin well over a billion dollars to transform into a luxury palace he can

00:42use whenever he wants to take a break, is supposed to be untouchable. Known to the world as Putin's

00:47palace, this sprawling estate has everything that an insane despot could ever need. In the past,

00:53this palace has been filled with the most opulent furniture that you could imagine,

00:58much of it gifted to Putin by the oligarchs that he has made rich since he came to power.

01:02At one point, around 1,500 people worked on the construction and renovation of this lavish building.

01:08It had a Japanese garden, a floor-level pool, and a massive gym constructed almost entirely of marble.

01:15Sure, it was basically made of plasterboard, and in later years some of it got covered in a nasty

01:20green mold. But if anything, that just proves that Gelenzyk truly was Putin's palace, impressive on

01:26the outside, but rotting at the core. This palace was a monument to the increasingly insulated world

01:32that Putin has created for himself. A mansion away from home, heavily protected and far removed from

01:37the average Russian. This is where Putin went to relax, firmly of the belief that nobody could touch him

01:43when he was within the palace walls. Then, everything changed.

01:47On August 3rd, the news broke that a Ukrainian drone had fallen mere kilometers away from Putin's

01:53palace. Ukraine hadn't scored a direct hit. It isn't even known if the palace was the target.

01:58It's unlikely that it was, as the drone that crash-landed was reportedly shot down just 300

02:02meters shy of a facility that has been linked to Russian missile production. That seems the more

02:07likely target. But for Putin, that facility, along with the six people killed and the 40 who were

02:12wounded, when Russia made the insane decision to shoot down Ukraine's drone over a populated beach,

02:18don't matter. What matters to Putin is that this single drone could have killed him.

02:22It was brought down a mere 24 kilometers away from Gelenzyk, showing Putin once and for all that even

02:28the most heavily protected corners of the Russia that he has created for himself now lie within Ukraine's

02:33reach. Ukraine may not have been targeting the palace, but it could have been. It can, at any time.

02:39The war that Putin started is now closer to him than it ever was before. What Putin thought would

02:45be an invasion that would offer no blowback to the Russian people has transformed into a full-blown war

02:50that threatens everybody in Russia. The political elite, with Putin at the head of the beast,

02:55thought that it was safe behind an invisible wall created by Ukraine's inability to strike them at

03:00their homes. That wall has come tumbling down, and Putin has heard the message loud and clear

03:05there is nowhere left for him to hide in Russia where Ukraine can't reach him. As the Kyiv Post

03:10reports, one Russian commenter is claiming, there is no longer a single battlefield, and there is no

03:15longer a rear area where one can simply hide. There is nowhere to hide in Russia. That commentator is

03:20right. Though it was just one drone that caused the panic at Gelenzyk, and you're soon going to

03:26discover how Russia reacted, the reality is that Ukraine has built up a stockpile of what it often

03:30calls long-range sanctions that could potentially strike Putin almost anywhere other than Russia's

03:36freezing, cold, and isolated Far East. And even that region may not be safe for much longer.

03:41On June 21, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy revealed that Ukraine has drones that

03:46can now travel up to 3,000 kilometers, as he vowed that Ukraine would now carry out daily strikes against

03:52Russia in the occupied territories. We didn't have to wait long for Ukraine to prove these range claims.

03:58On July 7, the news broke that Ukraine had carried out a strike against the Omsk oil refinery in

04:03Siberia, causing a huge fire. Any doubt that Putin might have had about Ukraine's claims was dispelled

04:09in an instant. This was a record-breaking strike when it came to distance, as Omsk is around 2,500

04:15kilometers away from Ukrainian-held territory. Zelenskyy made a promise, Ukraine's drone operators

04:20delivered. That should make Putin very worried, as Zelenskyy has made another promise.

04:25On July 24, in the wake of the Omsk strike and just ahead of the single drone that has

04:30caused Russia to panic in Gelenzyk, Zelenskyy said that Ukraine is working on new drone technology

04:35as we speak. That technology will soon give Ukraine's drones the ability to fly up to

04:405,000 kilometers. And this new generation of long-range sanctions isn't some far-off concept.

04:46Drones exceeding 4,000 kilometers are expected to be in the hands of Ukrainian operators by the end

04:52of 2026 and those exceeding 5,000 kilometers by the end of 2027. Ukraine isn't going to rest on

04:59those laurels either. It's working on drones that can travel up to 10,000 kilometers, which will

05:04practically put every part of Russia that matters within reach. Those drones won't be arriving in

05:092026. Russia will have to wait until 2027 to start dealing with Ukrainian weapons flying deeper into its

05:15territory than anybody ever believed they could. And that's the point of Omsk, of Gelenzyk, and of

05:22every drone that Ukraine sends into Russia. All of them break the contract that Putin put in place

05:28when he launched his so-called special military operation. Putin sold his people a very specific

05:33bill of goods when he invaded Ukraine in February 2022. They would not be touched. None of Russia would

05:39be. The bargain was simple. Support Putin in the special military operation and those Russians will

05:44be repaid with the reuniting of Russia and Ukraine, along with all of the prosperity that a nation

05:49with an estimated $15 trillion in mineral wealth promises. Four and a half years after selling that

05:55bill, Russia should be asking for a refund. Missiles and drones flying into Russian territory every day.

06:01There are blackouts, water shortages, the scent of burning oil in the air, and so much more,

06:06all of which Putin promised would never be a problem. The drone crashing at Gelenzyk is just

06:12another example that the contract has been broken. Only it's an example that makes Putin look even

06:16weaker than he did before. It's not just the Russians in far-flung regions that have minimal defenses that

06:22have to worry. Every Russian should be scared, because there is no such thing as a safe rear in the

06:27country anymore. Safe Moscow is no more, blared the headline of a June 18 Euromiden press report,

06:33which came in the wake of Ukraine carrying out its second strike in three days against the Moscow oil

06:38refinery that is just a stone's throw away from the Kremlin. Ukraine has been striking Russia's

06:44central nervous system throughout 2026, the Center for European Policy Analysis argued on July 15.

06:50Power plants, refineries, infrastructure, military bases, and heating systems are all targets of long

06:56range weapons that have reshaped the war and forced Russia to constantly re-evaluate its military calculus.

07:02Russia's 2026 reality is so far removed from Putin's 2022 promises that it may as well be in another

07:09dimension. And as for Gelenzyk, whatever aura may have once surrounded Putin's crumbling palace is

07:15officially gone. The single drone that reached Russia's Black Sea corridor on August 3rd isn't

07:21the first to have placed Putin's palace under threat. August 2025 saw debris from a downed Ukrainian drone

07:27spark a forest fire just 10 kilometers away from the palace, again showcasing that Ukraine's drones

07:33could hit the massive building if Ukraine really wanted them to. Another fire was reported near

07:38Gelenzyk in early 2026, again the result of a drone being down. So far, Russia's air defenses around

07:44Putin's palace have held up, but we should have expected them to. Ukraine hasn't unleashed a full-blown

07:50swarm against the palace. Every drone that Russia has shot down has been an isolated unmanned aerial

07:55vehicle that was likely on its way toward a different target. But Gelenzyk could easily

08:00have been that target. It may yet be in the future. And when it does become a target, it will

08:05be

08:06interesting to see how the palace's defenses hold up when faced with dozens, maybe even hundreds of

08:10drones, rather than the occasional one. There's one thing we can say for certain about what just

08:15happened near Putin's palace. Russia is panicking. We can see that from the response to the attack.

08:20That panic is real, and it should be. It's also tinged with hypocrisy, and it provides us with some

08:25insight into Putin's manipulative media tactics, as well as the fear he now lives with every single day.

08:31But before we go deeper into that, this is a reminder that you're watching the military show.

08:36If you haven't subscribed yet, now is the perfect time to hit the button and enable notifications,

08:41so you never miss a video. Russia's response to what happened in Gelenzyk was exactly what you would

08:46expect after hearing that civilians had been casualties of Ukraine's drone. An opportunity to cast Ukraine

08:52as the bad guy appeared. Russia's foreign ministry seized that opportunity with both hands. Ukraine had

08:58resorted to international terrorist activities, led spokeswoman Maria Zakharova. A terrorist gang had

09:05seized control over the Ukrainian state, and the West was complicit in supporting this terrorism.

09:11There's a reason why the word terrorist is repeated so often. Russia wants to drill this narrative into

09:16its people's heads because casting Ukraine as a terroristic nation that attacks civilians feeds into

09:21Putin's justifications for his invasion. Russia had to launch the special military operation,

09:27it had to stay in Ukraine, even after it became clear that the initial invasion had failed.

09:31These Ukrainians are trying to kill all Russians, and it's only brave Putin and the Russian military

09:37that can save you. The hypocrisy is on another level. And the reality of what happened at Gelenzyk is

09:42very different. You'll already picked up on that if you remember what we told you earlier. Ukraine clearly

09:47had a military target in mind. A facility that serves Russia's missile pipeline was just meters away from

09:53where Ukraine's drone crashed to earth. As for the drone, it was shot down by Russian air defenses.

09:58And as for that decision to fire, Andrey Kovalenko, who heads Ukraine's Center for Countering Disinformation,

10:04had some choice words to deliver to Russia. This was the work of Russian air defense forces,

10:08which shot the drone down over a beach full of vacationers, and pathetic efforts by the Russian

10:13authorities, who often conceal air raid alerts or fail to do everything necessary to ensure Russian

10:18safety during such alerts, Kovalenko declared, noting that Russia made the conscious decision to

10:24shoot Ukraine's drone down over a populated beach, and that Ukraine only attacks targets that are part

10:29of Russia's military-industrial complex, or otherwise help Putin to fund his war.

10:34A CNN analysis of the video of Ukraine's drone crashing down reveals that automatic gunfire from at

10:39least three weapons can be heard moments before the drone lands. Ukraine's drone then veers and dive-bombs

10:46into the beach, as control over its trajectory is lost. Russia did this to itself, but it claims terrorism.

10:53Let's focus on the hypocrisy of that for a moment. Russia says that Ukraine is a terrorist state

10:58because Russia shot down a Ukrainian drone over a populated beach. At best, this is a Russian accident

11:04that is being used to disparage Ukraine. At worst, Russia purposefully shot down this drone, offering no

11:10warning of what was incoming, so that it could cause casualties that it could pin on Ukraine.

11:15Either way, Ukraine didn't intend those casualties. That's something we can't say about Russia and

11:20its long-range attacks against Ukraine. According to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner

11:25for Human Rights, Russia has killed 16,431 Ukrainian civilians between February 24, 2022 and June 30,

11:342026. Another 48,613 civilians have been injured, many of them by Russia's missiles and drones. In fact,

11:42just days before what happened at Gelenzyk, Russia launched a ballistic missile strike against Kyiv

11:47that killed nine and injured dozens more. This is the difference between Ukraine and Russia.

11:52Ukraine aims for military targets, with civilian deaths being accidents. Russia targets civilians,

11:58purposefully. It's been doing it since the beginning of the invasion, and it will continue to do it

12:03because Putin believes that inspiring fear in the hearts of Ukraine's civilians could lead them to turn

12:08against Zelensky and accept Russia. When Zakharova claims terrorism for what happened near Putin's

12:13palace, the words ring hollower than Kevin Bacon in a schlocky 2000s sci-fi flick. You simply can't

12:20take Russia seriously when it's purposefully committing travesties that it doesn't even attempt to justify.

12:26Putin is a war criminal. That much is clear.

12:29But what just happened at Gelenzyk also shows us that a man who once thought himself

12:33untouchable could now be hit at any time, and that will make Putin very scared. A criminal constantly

12:41on the run, unable to move freely on his own land because he knows that one day Ukrainian drone

12:46operators might actually target him. There's another reason why Russia has been so quick to launch its

12:52latest round of condemning Ukraine for an incident that wasn't Ukraine's fault. It's not just about claiming

12:57Ukraine to be a terrorist nation. Putin is using what happened at Gelenzyk as propaganda,

13:02as he attempts to convince the world that Ukraine is actively trying to assassinate him while he is

13:07the sitting president of Russia. We know this because Putin has a history when it comes to this sort of

13:12thing. Toward the end of 2025, Russia claimed that Ukraine had launched a drone attack against Putin's

13:17residents in the northern Novgorod region. Russia went all in on this claim. It's even released footage

13:23purportedly showing Ukrainian drones that have been shot down on the ground somewhere outside the

13:27residents. In total, Russia said, Ukraine had unleashed 91 long-range drones against Putin's

13:33home. Only one or two were shot down in the footage, and there was no video of the drones being

13:38shot down.

13:39The conspiratorially minded might have instantly assumed that Russia had planted Ukrainian drone

13:43debris from other strikes at Novgorod to make it look like Ukraine had tried to kill Putin.

13:48The conspiracy theorists would have been right. That's exactly what Russia seems to have done.

13:53Ukraine instantly denied Russia's claims, and on January 5th, about a week or so after the

13:57attack, a US investigation into the supposed strike revealed that no Ukrainian attack had actually

14:03taken place at Novgorod. President Donald Trump, who initially described himself as

14:08very angry about the attack, said, I don't believe that strike happened. We don't believe that happened.

14:13Now that we've been able to check. Why does all of this matter? When Russia made its claim,

14:18it was in the midst of peace talks at the time. After the alleged attack, Russia said that it wouldn't

14:22be

14:22able to continue those talks. This was all purposeful, as Putin tried to play on his very

14:27real fear of Ukrainian drones to manipulate the US into siding with Russia. It didn't work.

14:33But now Russia has an attack that is confirmed to have happened near Gelenzyk. Putin's patsies

14:38haven't made the link between that attack and an attempt on Putin's life yet. But the strike and

14:43Russia's condemnation come right as rumors swirl that the US and Ukraine are working on a plan for an air

14:49sea's fire that may soon find its way onto Putin's desk. It wouldn't surprise us if Putin tries to

14:55use the Gelenzyk incident to refuse that plan, should it become tangible. Only this time the worry will

15:00be real. Ukraine's drone did get close to Putin's palace. Putin may try to twist all of this, but his

15:06response will be terror. This is a man who already lives in fear of attack, be it from Ukraine's drones

15:11or members of his own inner circle. It's been well documented since at least May that Putin now spends most

15:17of his time hiding away in underground bunkers, only emerging when he is called upon to make one of

15:22his increasingly rare public appearances. Forbes says that Ukraine's drones have inspired this bunker

15:28dwelling, as Putin is actively avoiding the lavish properties he once called home. The Independent

15:33says that at least one of those bunkers is in the Krasnodar region, which happens to be where Putin's

15:38palace is located. It's almost as though Putin is trying to stay as close as he can to the life

15:43that

15:44he once knew, though he knows that he won't live it again for as long as the Ukraine war drags

15:48on.

15:49That fear is the point of all of this for Ukraine. It may not have been actively targeting Putin's

15:54palace on August 3rd, but Ukraine won't mind that one of its drones came so close to it. Now that

15:59drone

16:00can serve as another example to the Russian people that their strongman leader is not what he claims to be.

16:05Another promise broken, just like the special military operation contract. Putin is supposed to be the

16:11great protector of Russia, the man who stands up for his nation and defends it at all costs.

16:16That's the narrative that he has spun around himself for more than two decades, and it's all

16:20come crashing down. Putin isn't a strongman. He's a man who spends his life in bunkers, cancels military

16:27parades, and restricts discourse in his own country to prop up his image. The armor that Putin wears has

16:32been battered over the last four and a half years. Now just one drone in Gelenzyk has put yet another

16:38massive dent into that armor. Everybody in Russia knows it now. Putin could be a target for Ukraine

16:44whenever Ukraine wants him to be. And if he isn't, Ukraine can strike at the entire fabric of Russian

16:50society, all because Putin has twisted every aspect of that society to serve his obsession with Ukraine.

16:57That's what we've seen with Ukraine's Wild Berries strikes. On the surface, Wild Berries is a civilian

17:02enterprise. In reality, it isn't. Far from it. It's as legitimate a military target as any,

17:08and Ukraine's strikes against the company are yet another example of Ukraine bringing Putin's war

17:13back home to roost. Find out more by watching our video. And if you enjoyed this video, we have plenty

17:19more coming up at The Military Show. Subscribe and enable notifications to ensure you're among the

17:24first to see what we have coming next. And thank you for watching.

Category

Transcript

Comments

Recommended