diff --git a/packages/aws-cdk/lib/api/nested-stack-helpers.ts b/packages/aws-cdk/lib/api/nested-stack-helpers.ts
index acbbb1e2a9245..26d0086d859c9 100644
--- a/packages/aws-cdk/lib/api/nested-stack-helpers.ts
+++ b/packages/aws-cdk/lib/api/nested-stack-helpers.ts
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 import * as path from 'path';
 import * as cxapi from '@aws-cdk/cx-api';
+import { CloudFormation } from 'aws-sdk';
 import * as fs from 'fs-extra';
 import { ISDK } from './aws-auth';
 import { LazyListStackResources, ListStackResources } from './evaluate-cloudformation-template';
@@ -20,6 +21,14 @@ export interface TemplateWithNestedStackCount {
   readonly nestedStackCount: number;
 }
 
+export type NestedChangeSet = CloudFormation.DescribeChangeSetOutput & {
+  Changes?: CloudFormation.Changes & {
+    ResourceChange?: {
+      NestedChanges?: CloudFormation.DescribeChangeSetOutput | NestedChangeSet,
+    },
+  }[],
+};
+
 /**
  * Reads the currently deployed template from CloudFormation and adds a
  * property, `NestedTemplate`, to any nested stacks that appear in either
@@ -68,6 +77,27 @@ export async function loadCurrentTemplate(
   return loadCurrentStackTemplate(stackArtifact.stackName, sdk, retrieveProcessedTemplate);
 }
 
+/**
+ * inlines changesets of all nested stacks in rootChangeSet into rootChangeSet
+ */
+export async function populateNestedChangeSet(rootChangeSet: NestedChangeSet, cfn: CloudFormation) {
+  const changes = rootChangeSet.Changes;
+  if (changes) {
+    for (const change of changes) {
+      if (change.Type === 'Resource' && change.ResourceChange) {
+        if (change.ResourceChange && change.ResourceChange.ResourceType === 'AWS::CloudFormation::Stack') {
+          const nestedChangeSetId = change.ResourceChange.ChangeSetId;
+          const nestedChangeSet = await cfn.describeChangeSet({
+            ChangeSetName: nestedChangeSetId!,
+          }).promise();
+          await populateNestedChangeSet(nestedChangeSet, cfn);
+          change.ResourceChange.NestedChanges = nestedChangeSet;
+        }
+      }
+    }
+  }
+}
+
 async function loadCurrentStackTemplate(
   stackName: string, sdk: ISDK, retrieveProcessedTemplate: boolean = false,
 ) : Promise<Template> {
diff --git a/packages/aws-cdk/lib/api/util/cloudformation.ts b/packages/aws-cdk/lib/api/util/cloudformation.ts
index 5d49eecbd57e4..ba0f6828e8bdd 100644
--- a/packages/aws-cdk/lib/api/util/cloudformation.ts
+++ b/packages/aws-cdk/lib/api/util/cloudformation.ts
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@ import { debug } from '../../logging';
 import { deserializeStructure } from '../../serialize';
 import { SdkProvider } from '../aws-auth';
 import { Deployments } from '../deployments';
+import { populateNestedChangeSet } from '../nested-stack-helpers';
 
 export type Template = {
   Parameters?: Record<string, TemplateParameter>;
@@ -382,6 +383,7 @@ async function createChangeSet(options: CreateChangeSetOptions): Promise<CloudFo
   debug('Initiated creation of changeset: %s; waiting for it to finish creating...', changeSet.Id);
   // Fetching all pages if we'll execute, so we can have the correct change count when monitoring.
   const createdChangeSet = await waitForChangeSet(options.cfn, options.stack.stackName, options.changeSetName, { fetchAll: options.willExecute });
+  await populateNestedChangeSet(createdChangeSet, options.cfn);
   await cleanupOldChangeset(options.exists, options.changeSetName, options.stack.stackName, options.cfn);
 
   return createdChangeSet;