Nonna Grishaeva is a Soviet and Russian theater, film, and television actress, TV and radio presenter, parodist, singer, writer, editor, and illustrator. Honored Artist of the Russian Federation (2006). Born on July 21, 1971, in Odesa, Ukrainian SSR. Holds Russian citizenship.
In June 2017, she was entered into the database of the "Myrotvorets" website for illegally visiting Russian-occupied Crimea. Subsequently, she was banned from entering Ukraine, though in 2020 the entry ban was lifted (which Nonna claims occurred thanks to Volodymyr Zelenskyy's personal intercession).
In 2020, in an interview with propagandist Vyacheslav Manucharov, she spoke about alleged "infringement" of the Russian language in Odesa and asserted that Russians and Ukrainians would inevitably reconcile. Having lived and worked in Russia for decades, Nonna unnoticeably adopted Kremlin talking points:
Bismarck once said: the main thing is to drive a wedge between Ukraine and Russia. Well, that is being successfully carried out. Yet there are no closer peoples. We are so intertwined that no matter how hard you try to tear us apart, you cannot break that bond.
In Odesa, people never spoke Ukrainian. Right now, the Russian language has been cancelled in Ukraine and in Odesa as well. But while elsewhere in Ukraine they don't suffer as much from this, in Odesa they suffer particularly. I love the Ukrainian language immensely; I always filmed in Ukrainian national films with pleasure... But if you take a medication instruction leaflet or a legal document, that's two entirely different things.
I love both Ukraine and Russia. Even if mother is wrong in some way, even if father is wrong in some way, I still love them both. I am absolutely certain that peace will come, we will unite, and love will triumph anyway. Relations will gradually be restored someday; it simply cannot be otherwise.
Nonna Grishaeva's stance on the war in Ukraine
In 2022, following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Nonna Grishaeva refused to condemn the war, comparing it instead to a "domestic family dispute" where she portrays herself as a child forced to choose between two parents. Nevertheless, in her interpretation, "the mother cheated and betrayed," while "the father beats her for it":
Please don't scream at me and don't demand the impossible! I love both daddy and mommy! And it pains me terribly to watch them fight. I am terrified, I huddled into a corner and I'm crying. I don't want daddy to beat mommy, even though she cheated on him and betrayed him... I want them to sit down at the table and talk. And I will sit between them, hold their hands, and stop crying.
In essence, she accused Ukraine of "infidelity" and "betrayal" toward Russia, which serves as a direct justification for Russian military actions.
In her statements, she never termed Russia an aggressor and did not condemn the invasion, choosing instead to advance the narrative that Russians and Ukrainians are "one people." This stance aligns seamlessly with Kremlin propaganda, which seeks to frame the war as an internal family quarrel.
The actress continues to reside and work in Moscow, serving as artistic director of the Moscow State Theater of Young Spectators, and touring across Russia. At the same time, she maintains real estate in Odesa and visits occasionally.
2025 Interview
In November 2025, Grishaeva gave an interview to the media platform "SLOVO," where she reiterated core Kremlin propaganda talking points in an even more unvarnished manner:
I was born in the Soviet Union. In the Russian city of Odesa. It was founded by the Russian Empress Catherine, and there are many people there who speak Russian. In Odesa, they never spoke Ukrainian. Never. The fact that Ukrainian-speaking people appeared—they were shipped into Odesa; they were never originally there.
This is horrifying. How they began pitting us against each other. My mother taught English. She said she was being forced to teach English in Ukrainian. I took my mother away to Moscow.
For 30 years, we tolerated this incitement against Russians. They were taught that everything Russian is bad, bad, bad. Why bad, when we are the closest, blood-related brothers?
State decoration from Putin
A few weeks after the interview asserting that "Odesa is a Russian city," Russian President Vladimir Putin awarded Nonna Grishaeva the Order "For Merits in Culture and Art." The relevant decree was published on the official portal of legal acts of the Russian Federation.
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