Russian invasion of Ukraine
Special Coverage
Vladimir Putin began a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, in an escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War that he started in 2014. The invasion received widespread international condemnation, including massive economic sanctions. Milwaukee’s Ukrainian American community began with immigrants in the early twentieth century, and continued to grow in the years after World War II and the fall of the Soviet Union.
These news stories cover the local connections in Milwaukee to an international crisis, and all the complexities woven into America’s political climate.
- Links to complete news coverage of Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine: mkeind.com/ukraine
- Reports from Ukraine – Series of news reports from May 2022 in Ukraine: mkeind.com/reportsfromukraine
- Return to Ukraine – Series of news reports from June-July 2023 in Ukraine: mkeind.com/returntoukraine
- Selected features that focus on news from Milwaukee’s Sister City of Irpin: mkeind.com/irpin
Featured: Jennifer Vosters: A visit to Kyiv that offered insight, awareness, and an inspiration for solidarity [Feb 24, 2022]
How Russia’s military culture is undermining its war in Ukraine by treating soldiers as expendable manpower
It is well known that Russia’s military culture is vile, brutal, and lethal. Russian military commanders in the Ukraine War are notorious for relying on “meat grinder” assaults, sending wave after wave of soldiers to attack Ukrainian positions, only to be gunned down,...
Mykola Melnyk brings “My Maidan” book and Ukrainian veterans who survived Putin’s war to Milwaukee
At the Milwaukee Central Library, three highly decorated Ukrainian war veterans met with the local Ukrainian diasporia. They held a special Q&A session to discuss their experiences during Russia’s brutal invasions of their nation since 2014. The September...
Trump diverts blame for his failed war in Iran by blaming Ukraine for high diesel prices in Russia
Donald Trump on September 13 called on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to halt strikes on Russian oil refineries and other infrastructure used to produce and distribute diesel, saying the attacks are causing a global shortage. He spoke after diesel prices in...
Ukraine’s long-range strikes have expanded the front lines and brought the war home to Russians
The meeting in the Oval Office between U.S. President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was a diplomatic car crash. “Your country is in big trouble. You’re not winning,” Trump said, dressing down Zelenskyy in front of the...
How drone warfare has changed battlefield tactics used by special forces in Ukraine
Special forces operators (SOF, or SSO in Ukrainian) are regarded as a nation’s elite fighting force. They receive the most training and investment and are often the first to go into battle, including deep behind enemy lines. Throughout the Russia-Ukraine War,...
How Trump’s betrayal of Ukraine and realignment with Putin forced Kyiv to accelerate military autonomy
The Kyiv Independent’s Martin Fornusek interviewed Phillips O’Brien, a U.S. historian and professor of strategic studies, about Ukraine’s decision to stop trying to win over President Donald Trump and the broader shift in Kyiv’s wartime strategy. The exchange pointed...
Putin’s shrinking map of safety shows how Ukraine’s drone war is erasing Russia’s strategic depth
Vladimir Putin’s increasingly constrained public behavior has become part of the war’s political geography. Long absences during crises, reduced travel, avoidance of exposed locations, and a greater dependence on protected spaces are important because they cut against...
Ukraine races to field ground robots as drone warfare pushes soldiers farther from the front
The Ukrainian military is steadily replacing dangerous frontline tasks with ground robots. In April, President Volodymyr Zelensky ordered the military to field at least 50,000 unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) in 2026, calling them “the next big step” in...
Russia’s brutal invasion pulls Ukraine closer to Nordic allies as Europe’s security map shifts
Sweden’s decision to send 16 Gripen fighter jets to Ukraine is more than another weapons transfer. It is the latest sign of a deeper shift that has emerged during Russia’s full-scale invasion: Ukraine’s growing alignment with the Nordic countries....
Azov fighters return to Mariupol airspace with drones nearly four years after Azovstal siege
For much of the war, Mariupol has symbolized both Russia’s brutality and Ukraine’s resistance. The southern port city was reduced to ruins during Russia’s siege in 2022. Tens of thousands are believed to have died. Satellite imagery later revealed mass graves...
Chernobyl at 40: What secret files from the Soviet nuclear disaster reveal about political deception
By Lauren Cassidy, Lecturer German and Russian Studies, Binghamton University, State University of New York On April 26, 1986, Soviet engineers at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant were conducting a safety test. Doomed by a fatal design flaw and pushed to the limit by...
A Ukrainian city still gathers annually for a midnight Chernobyl vigil despite Russia’s brutal war
People streamed into the central square of Slavutych in the early hours of April 26, placing candles on a large radiation hazard symbol laid out on the ground as a midnight commemoration began for those killed in the Chernobyl disaster 40 years ago and the thousands...
How Ukraine is reshaping the meaning of victory in modern warfare by using strategic neutralization
Ukraine is redefining what the concept of victory looks like in modern warfare, not by chasing the total destruction of Russia, but by systematically stripping that brutal enemy of the ability to fight effectively. After 46 months of full-scale invasion, the conflict...
Featured: Photos from the frontlines: Sergi Mykhalchuk documents images of war as civilians evacuate Irpin [Mar 16, 2022]
Featured: Milwaukee formalizes Sister City status with Ukraine’s Irpin [Mar 23, 2018]
Milwaukee has a small but thriving Ukrainian American community, and Irpin is a sister city. Follow our special coverage at mkeind.com/ukraine for updates on Putin’s invasion, and about how the fight by Ukrainian people to preserve their democracy is having an impact on the families and businesses here in Milwaukee. 🇺🇦 Слава Україні! Героям слава!
Help maintain a reliable news source in Ukraine by supporting the Kyiv Independent, an English-language media outlet created by journalists who were fired from the Kyiv Post for defending editorial independence. Donations can be made via patreon or gofundme.
