Putin Avoids Sochi for Record 322 Days Amid Drone Threat

Russian President Vladimir Putin has not made a public visit to Sochi since October 2025, marking a 322-day break from trips to the southern Russian resort city, according to the Russian independent outlet Agentstvo on Thursday, Aug. 20. Putin last visited the Krasnodar Krai region on Oct. 2, 2025, when he attended a meeting of the Valdai Discussion Club in Sochi.JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official. According to Agentstvo, Putin visited Sochi twice a year in each of the previous two years, traveling there in the spring to visit the Sirius federal territory and returning in the fall for the Valdai meeting. The Russian president skipped his usual spring visit in 2026. Whether he will return to Sochi this fall will become clear in the coming months, Agentstvo reported. Putin’s Sochi visits become less frequent Putin’s last spring visit to Sochi took place on May 19, 2025. He attended a meeting of the board of trustees of the Talent and Success Foundation, visited a new music school and spoke with students and teachers. In 2024, Putin attended the Valdai Discussion Club in Sochi on Nov. 7. He had also visited Sirius on March 6 that year for the World Youth Festival, meeting participants and speaking at the closing ceremony. Before Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine, Putin traveled to Sochi considerably more often. According to the independent investigative outlet Proekt, Putin visited the city between 24 and 37 times a year from 2015 to 2021. The exception was 2020, when he made eight visits. Other Topics of Interest Ukraine Gains Ground Near Kharkiv, Foils Russian Flag-Raising Attempt Ukrainian forces recently advanced north of Kharkiv City and thwarted a Russian flag-raising mission near Vovchansk, according to the Institute for the Study of War. Proekt previously reported that Putin may have spent more time in Sochi during the COVID-19 pandemic than was publicly disclosed. A copy of his office at the Novo-Ogaryovo residence was reportedly built inside the Bocharov Ruchey presidential residence in Sochi so that Putin could isolate there while maintaining the appearance of working from Moscow. According to a source familiar with Putin cited by Proekt, the president stopped regularly traveling to Sochi after drones began reaching the city in the fall of 2023. The source said Putin had become concerned for his safety. Ukrainian drone strikes affect Putin’s travel The reduction in Putin’s trips to Sochi comes as Ukrainian drones have increasingly reached Russian regions farther from the frontline. On Monday, Ukrainian forces attacked a major oil refinery in Nizhnekamsk, Tatarstan, and several other energy facilities across Russia. Russian monitoring channels had reported at least 12 deaths at the refinery. Agentstvo reported that Ukrainian drones began reaching Novgorod Oblast, where another presidential residence is located, late last year. This also affected Putin’s travel schedule. From Nov. 6, 2025, to June 17, 2026, Putin went 223 days without making a regional trip, according to Agentstvo. His foreign travel also saw a significant pause. Before visiting China on May 19-20, Putin’s previous foreign trip had been to Turkmenistan on Dec. 11-12, 2025, a gap of 158 days. Since resuming regional travel, most of Putin’s trips have taken place outside European Russia, where Ukrainian drones have been active, Agentstvo reported. The only region in European Russia, excluding Moscow, Moscow Oblast, St. Petersburg, Leningrad Oblast and Novgorod Oblast, that Putin visited this summer was Tatarstan. Sochi also sees fewer Russian visitors The decline in Putin’s visits comes as fewer Russians are traveling to Sochi, according to Agentstvo. Data from a booking aggregator obtained by the Financial Times showed that hotel bookings at some Sochi properties had fallen by 20 percent, while airline ticket sales to the city had declined by 40 percent compared with the previous year. The figures suggest that increased security concerns and the threat of Ukrainian drone attacks are affecting not only the president’s travel schedule but also tourism in one of Russia’s most popular resort destinations. Kyiv Post is Ukraine’s first and oldest English news organization, reporting since 1995. Its international reach – 97% of readers are outside of Ukraine – make it truly Ukraine’s global voice.