The superyacht Graceful, which has been linked to Vladimir Putin, is sailing along Norway’s coast toward Murmansk under escort by Russian military vessels, according to a report by The Telegraph, citing maritime intelligence data and satellite images analyzed by the newspaper.
The 82-meter Graceful is being escorted by the Northern Fleet destroyer Severomorsk and the rescue and patrol vessel Voevoda. NATO is monitoring the transit, the newspaper said, while German and Danish patrol vessels accompanied the ships as they moved through the Baltic Sea. Images published by The Telegraph show the yacht sailing alongside Russian military vessels, with anti-drone nets visible on its deck, according to the newspaper.
The Insider analyzed data from the Starboard Maritime Intelligence vessel tracking system, which confirms that Graceful passed through Danish waters on June 29 and stopped transmitting Automatic Identification System (AIS) coordinates that evening in the Skagerrak strait, located between northern Denmark and southern Norway.
Graceful’s last available AIS point was recorded at 6:13 p.m. Moscow time on June 29. At that moment, the vessel was about 36 kilometers from Hirtshals, Denmark, and about 110 kilometers from Kristiansand, Norway. Before that, the yacht had been moving north and northwest through the Kattegat at about 20 to 25 kph. At 4:15 a.m. on June 29, the yacht listed its destination as Istanbul, Turkey. After its AIS disappeared, however, it became impossible to verify the rest of its route.
Graceful was built at Germany’s Blohm & Voss shipyard and sailed from Hamburg to Kaliningrad in February 2022, shortly before the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The United States later placed the yacht under sanctions due to its status as property linked to Putin. The vessel was then renamed Kosatka, Russian for “orca.”
The Insider previously reported that in June the Graceful had suddenly appeared in the Baltic Sea after almost four years of absence from AIS data. Another superyacht used by Putin’s circle, the 71-meter Victoria, left Russia in late June and headed toward Bodrum, Turkey.
