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Ukraine
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Ukraine: Khrushchev would find Putin’s invasion ‘outrageous, despicable’, says granddaughter of Soviet leader

  • Nina Khrushcheva, born and raised in Moscow, is a professor of international affairs in New York
  • ‘Khrushchev restored Kyiv after World War II so was very loving towards that city … and now it’s being bombed by another leader of Russia’

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The late Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev. His granddaughter has criticised Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. Photo: Getty Images
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The granddaughter of former Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev has told a British newspaper she is embarrassed by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and that her grandfather would have found it “despicable”.

“He’d think it was outrageous and despicable and impossible,” Nina Khrushcheva told the Independent. She also said she felt “horrible” and “embarrassed” by the attack, the paper reported.

“I can’t believe that although [Putin] is claiming he’s trying to prevent the war, he’s actually waging a war on a nation he says is the same as Russia, a brotherly nation of Ukrainians,” she said.

A car destroyed by shelling in the city of Brovary outside Kyiv on Tuesday. Photo: AFP
A car destroyed by shelling in the city of Brovary outside Kyiv on Tuesday. Photo: AFP
Khrushchev, who led the Soviet Union from 1958 to 1964, maintained a close relationship with Ukraine.

His hometown, Kalinovka, was located seven miles from the Russian border with Ukraine, and he spent much of his life working in the Donbas region in the eastern part of the country.

After World War II, he was appointed Secretary of the Communist Party of Ukraine and played a pivotal role in rebuilding Kyiv, which had been heavily bombed by the Germans.

“Khrushchev restored Kyiv after World War II, so he was very loving towards that city,” Khrushcheva said.

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