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]
Milwaukee residents rally in outrage over Trump’s humiliation of Zelenskyy and betrayal of Ukraine
Ukrainians in Milwaukee and around the world have been rallying around President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the aftermath of the ambush he suffered at the White House, when Donald Trump and JD Vance used the meeting to publicly humiliate the wartime leader and promote Russian lies.
Kremlin critics: Russia uses its spy network to target dissidents abroad with poisonings and harassment
The military defector was killed in a hail of gunfire and then run over by a car in Spain. The opposition figure was struck repeatedly with a hammer in Lithuania. The journalist fell ill from a suspected poisoning in Germany. Since President Vladimir Putin launched...
Weaponizing migration: How Russia and Belarus are targeting Poland to benefit Europe’s far-right
A Somali woman pushed her bandaged hand between two vertical bars of a thick metal barrier separating Belarus from Poland, as she and four other women gazed toward the European Union. They nodded gratefully as a Polish humanitarian aid worker called to them across a...
Ukraine marks 33rd Independence anniversary without fireworks or parades as war against Russia rages
A somber atmosphere pervades Ukraine’s 33rd Independence Day on August 24, as the nation’s war against Russia’s aggression reaches a 30-month milestone. No fireworks, parades, or concerts are planned and instead Ukrainians will mark the day with...
A deal with the devil: Why Ukraine cannot sign a peace deal with a Russian gun to its head
Signing an agreement with Russia to stop the war with Ukraine would amount to signing a deal with the devil, a top adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, as external forces seek to pressure the nation into a toxic deal to end more than two years of...
Pacifist principles: Japan steps away from its post-war policy by exporting military aid to Ukraine
Japan’s Cabinet approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets to other countries on March 26. It is the latest step away from the pacifist principles the country adopted at the end of World War II. The controversial decision to allow international...
Missing in Action: Thousands of Ukrainians live in agony as they search for loved ones who disappeared
Iryna Reva stares at her phone, replaying the last video her 25-year-old son Vladyslav sent her from the front line before the volunteer soldier disappeared more than 19 months ago in a battle with Russian forces in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region. Reva is one...
Targeting Beauty: Why Russia’s brutality aimed beyond destroying lives to also obliterate Ukrainian culture
By Ian Kuijt, Professor of Anthropology, University of Notre Dame; Pavlo Shydlovskyi, Associate Professor of Archaeology, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kiev; and William Donaruma, Professor of the Practice in Filmmaking, University of Notre Dame War does not...
Roman Kashpur: Ukrainian war hero conquers Tokyo Marathon 2024 with prosthetic leg
3.11 EXPLORING FUKUSHIMA: This feature is part of an original Milwaukee Independent editorial series that documented the 13th anniversary of the "Great East Japan Earthquake," tsunami, and nuclear accident, including the conditions of both the people and places that...
Defenders of Irpin honored at Bucha memorial on second anniversary of the liberation of Kyiv region
On the second anniversary of the liberation of Kyiv region from Russian invaders, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy took part in the raising of the State Flag of Ukraine on the flagpole of the Memorial to the Defenders of the Bucha Community. By the end of March 2022,...
Trauma still haunts some families as Ukraine’s Bucha rebuilds two years after brutal occupation
Days after Russian forces withdrew from the outskirts of Kyiv in the dramatic first weeks of their full-scale invasion two years ago, a photo revealed what had become of Nataliia Verbova’s missing husband. Poring over the image of eight men executed and lying on cold...
A “God’s-Eye” view: Aboard secretive surveillance flights keeping watch on Russian forces in Ukraine
Off in the distance, Ukraine is fighting for its survival. Seen from up here, in the cockpit of a French Air Force surveillance plane flying over neighboring Romania, the snow-dusted landscapes look deceptively peaceful. The dead from Russia’s war, the shattered...
President Zelenskyy shares concerns about excluding Ukraine from US-Russia talks about the war
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that excluding his country from talks between the U.S. and Russia about the war in Ukraine would be “very dangerous” and asked for more discussions between Kyiv and Washington to develop a plan for a ceasefire....
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.
