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.
- Selected features that focus on news from Milwaukee’s Sister City of Irpin can be found here: mkeind.com/irpin
- Complete coverage from the series Reports from Ukraine can be found here: mkeind.com/reportsfromukraine
Featured: Jennifer Vosters: A visit to Kyiv that offered insight, awareness, and an inspiration for solidarity [Feb 24, 2022]
A zero-sum game: How the war in Ukraine is helping Iran achieve its national security objectives
By Aaron Pilkington, U.S. Air Force Analyst of Middle East Affairs, PhD Student at Korbel School of International Studies, University of Denver The war in Ukraine is helping one country achieve its foreign policy and national security objectives, but it is neither...
Magruder’s Principle: The rapid advance by Ukraine against Russia shows its skill in modern warfare
By Benjamin Jensen, Professor of Strategic Studies, Marine Corps University; Scholar-in-Residence, American University, American University School of International Service Ukrainian forces, aided by Western firepower, have upset traditional military logic once again....
A Paper Tiger: Ukraine has exposed the deep institutional weakness of Russia’s military capability
Viewed purely in terms of the size of their formations and equipment, Russian ground forces in Ukraine still pose a serious threat on a number of axes. In practice, however, it is highly unlikely the Russian military can recover from its increasingly terminal...
Beyond Ukraine: How Putin wages war on the world from energy blackmail to threats of starvation
The Ukrainians have (again) done what nobody believed they could. They have (again) defeated the supposedly mighty Russia on the battlefield, shown up the underlying incompetence and moral rot of the Putin system. It took them just six days to take back whole swaths...
A show of weakness: Partial military mobilization reveals Putin’s desperation and perhaps his last stand
By Stefan Wolff, Professor of International Security, University of Birmingham; and Tatyana Malyarenko, Professor of International Relations, National University Odesa Law Academy Declaring a partial mobilization and threatening the use of “lots of Russian weapons” in...
Illegal Annexation: Putin escalates war to dangerous new phase as ploy to avoid accepting defeat
By Alexander Gillespie, Professor of Law, University of Waikato A lot has changed since world leaders last met in person at the United Nations General Assembly: a global pandemic, a looming food crisis, economic stress, climate disasters – and the Russian invasion of...
Leading from behind: Why Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is now more than a proxy war for the United States
Although Washington insists that it is not interested in a direct military conflict with Moscow, the latter claims that the United States is, in fact, directly involved. On September 8, Secretary of State Antony Blinken appeared in Kyiv on an unannounced visit. He...
Ukraine War Stories: Developer releases online game using real life events from Hostomel, Bucha, Mariupol
Kyiv-based game developer Starni Games has launched a special charity project, “Ukraine War Stories.” A demo version of the online game is available now for the PC, with a full release date planned for October 2022. Ukraine War Stories is a set of visual...
Running short on soldiers: Why Putin continues to ignore Russia’s staggering losses on the battlefield
By Alexander Hill, Professor of Military History, University of Calgary Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine recaptured thousands of square miles of territory from Russian forces in a matter of days in a counteroffensive near Kharkiv. Kyiv has since...
National Security: What the U.S. Military can learn from Putin’s disastrous invasion of Ukraine
In Washington, wide agreement exists that the Russian army’s performance in the Kremlin’s ongoing Ukraine “special military operation” ranks somewhere between lousy and truly abysmal. The question is: Why? The answer in American policy circles,...
Crisis Fatigue: How overexposure to traumatic news pushes the public to becomes indifferent to tragedy
By Rebecca Rozelle-Stone, Professor of Philosophy, University of North Dakota When Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine by land, air and sea on February 24, 2022, the images of war were conveyed to dismayed onlookers around the world. Far from the...
Ruin and Rejuvenation: Secretary of State Antony Blinken visits Irpin during surprise visit to Ukraine
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken made an unannounced trip to Kyiv on September 8, where he met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. He also visited Milwaukee’s Sister City of Irpin to survey its war-damage and recovery progress. President...
200th Day of War: Putin’s military forces suffer worst strategic defeat since the failed attack on Kyiv
Moscow has abandoned its main bastion in northeastern Ukraine, in a sudden collapse of one of the war’s principal front lines after Ukrainian forces made a rapid advance. The swift fall of Izyum in Kharkiv province on Saturday was Moscow’s worst defeat since its...
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.
