City Stalin destroyed British university probes (8)
I believe the answer is:
istanbul
'city' is the definition.
(I know that Istanbul is a city)
'stalin destroyed british university probes' is the wordplay.
'destroyed' is an anagram indicator.
'british' becomes 'b' (abbreviation e.g. in BBC).
'university' becomes 'U' (abbreviation as in UMass).
'probes' means one lot of letters goes inside another (probe can mean to poke or prod into).
'b'+'u'='bu'
'stalin' anagrammed gives 'istanl'.
'istanl' placed around 'bu' is 'ISTANBUL'.
(Other definitions for istanbul that I've seen before include "City straddling the Bosporus" , "Modern name of Constantinople" , "Stub nail in Turkey" , "Turkish port city" , "European city" .)