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]
Ukrainians rally around their president after Trump’s ego is bruised for parroting Putin’s lies
Days before the third anniversary of Russia’s brutal full-scale invasion, Ukrainians were as somber and tense as they were right before Moscow launched the unprovoked war. Only now, they are not just worried about their longtime enemy. Ukraine’s stunning...
Occupying Taiwan: Opinions remain divided over what lessons China is learning from Russia’s failures
By Peter Rutland, Professor of Government, Wesleyan University U.S. defense strategists warn that China may use the distraction of the war in Ukraine to launch military action against Taiwan. They believe Chinese President Xi Jinping is determined to gain control over...
Navigating the world: Ukrainian soldiers blinded in combat face new kind of battle as civilians
Along a bustling street in a western Ukrainian city, Denys Abdulin takes his first independent strides since he was severely wounded and blinded while fighting invading Russian troops more than a year ago. The 34-year-old former soldier, wearing black glasses and...
A web of scars: Thousands of Ukrainian soldiers face an amputee trauma on a scale unseen since WWI
The small band of soldiers gather outside to share cigarettes and war stories, sometimes casually and sometimes with a degree of testiness over recollections made unreliable by their last day fighting, the day the war took away their limbs. Some clearly remember the...
Trump’s favorite war criminal worms back into American politics as Putin supports his puppet
Russian dictator Vladimir Putin recently asserted that the criminal cases against disgraced ex-president Donald Trump were nothing more than political revenge, offering a series of toxic statements seen as his latest effort to sow discord by supporting his former...
Disaster Debate: Pro-Russian voices spread toxic propaganda on social media after Ohio train crash
Soon after a train derailed and spilled toxic chemicals in Ohio last month, anonymous pro-Russian accounts started spreading misleading claims and anti-American propaganda about it on Twitter, using Elon Musk’s new verification system to expand their reach while...
Putin charged with war crimes after international court issues warrant over child abductions in Ukraine
The International Criminal Court said on March 17 that it has issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin for war crimes, accusing him of personal responsibility for the abductions of children from Ukraine. It was the first time the global court has...
Child Victims: Why prosecuting Putin for abductions in Ukraine will not guarantee the kids can return home
By Stefan Schmitt, Project Lead for International Technical Forensic Services, Florida International University The International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin on March 17, 2023, over war crimes in Ukraine, alleging he...
New mass grave: Mourners in Bucha commemorate volunteers who tried to stop Russian drive to Kyiv
Clutching flowers and wiping away tears, relatives, neighbors and friends of eight men executed by Russian forces during the occupation of the Ukrainian town of Bucha gathered on March 4 to mark the first anniversary of the deaths. The eight had set up a roadblock in...
United For Freedom: Milwaukee holds vigil to honor the lives lost in 365 days of defending Ukraine
More than 64 cities across America joined the “365 Days Defending Freedom” event, which began on February 24. The Milwaukee rally was organized to remind the world that Russia’s war against Ukraine has been going on for nine years. It has been one year since the unprovoked full-scale invasion started on February 24, 2022.
A World War: How information became a key weapon of the Ukrainian defense against Russia’s brutality
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is the deadliest conflict in Europe since World War II, and the first to see algorithms and TikTok videos deployed alongside fighter planes and tanks. The online fight has played out on computer screens and smartphones around the...
Drone footage shows the utter devastation of Bakhmut and the scale of Putin’s madness
Amid the smoking ruins, a lone dog pads in the snow, surely unaware that death rains down regularly from the skies on the remnants of this Ukrainian city that Russia is pounding into rubble. But for now Bakhmut stands — growing as a symbol of Ukrainian resistance with...
Olena Zelenska: Ukraine’s youth should see themselves as “a generation of winners” not victims of war
Ukraine’s First Lady wants her country’s children to view themselves not as a generation enduring a grinding war but rather as “a generation of winners.” On the sidelines of a day spent at a rehabilitation camp for Ukrainian children in the...
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.
