Belousov’s “great niece” calls on him to stop attacking his Ukrainian relatives

Independent Russian news site The Insider interviewed Natalia Vertinskaya and reported on the YouTube video posted by the former Kiev resident, now living in the US, in which she details Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov’s ties to relatives still living in Ukraine and calls on him to stop his attacks on the country.

The Insider confirmed the fact that Vertinskaya’s father is Belousov’s cousin, who still lives in Kyiv, and that Major General Alexander Belousov, Natalia’s great-grandfather and Andrei Belousov’s grandfather, is indeed buried next to his wife in the Ukrainian capital. It seems that neither Belousov nor his father, a well-known Russian economist, have had contact with their Ukrainian relatives for many years.

In the video, Vertinskaya, who now lives in the United States, said she has a disabled child whom she regularly takes for treatment to the Ohmatdyt Children’s Hospital, which was hit by a Russian Kh-101 long-range cruise missile on July 8, killing two adults and a child and injuring dozens more.

Other interesting topics

Reactions of leading politicians to shooting at Trump rally

World leaders reacted with shock to Donald Trump’s injury in an assassination attempt on the former US president during an election rally.

The attack on Kyiv was part of a mass attack using nearly 40 missiles and drones on five Ukrainian cities – Kyiv, Kryvyi Rih, Dnipro, Kropyvnytskyi and Pokrovsk – that killed more than 40 civilians and injured nearly 200.

Vertinskaya says her 75-year-old father, whose name she did not give, was seriously injured in Monday’s attack. He lives in Kyiv’s Shevchenkivskyi district, where another building was hit by another missile. In the video, she says: “I urge you, Uncle Andrei, think about what you are doing – and stop. Please stop!”

She then urges viewers of the video to “…tell the whole world that the Russian Defense Minister has a cousin who lives in Kyiv. And his grandparents and aunt are also buried in Kyiv. My father continues to guard these graves.”

She says the motive for the video was when she learned that my uncle had become Russian defense minister and was now firing missiles at my father – his cousin. I could no longer remain silent.”

It appears that Vertinskaya’s original video was posted shortly after Belousov’s appointment, but only attracted media attention after the mass attack on Ukraine on Monday.

This prompted pro-Russian media to claim that her video was part of a fake news attack orchestrated by the “entire West.” They suggested that Ukraine was using the alleged Russian missile attack on the Ohmatdyt Children’s Hospital, coinciding with the start of the NATO summit in Washington DC, as a pretext to fraudulently secure more money for its war against Russia.