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]

Road of Life: Romanivsky Bridge Memorial earns global acclaim for Irpin’s journey since wartime devastation
A somber reminder of the early days of the brutal Russian invasion now stands as a beacon of unity and rebirth in Milwaukee’s sister city of Irpin, located on the outskirts of Kyiv. The memorial installation was unveiled last August on the site of the destroyed...

Remembering Oskar Schindler: A photojournalist’s diary from the streets of Jewish Kraków
Return to Ukraine: This feature is part of an original Milwaukee Independent editorial series that recorded news from areas across Ukraine, including Milwaukee's sister city of Irpin, from June to July of 2023. It was the second time in the span of a year that the...

Iryna Pletnyova: How the city of Uman transformed into a hub for refugees fleeing war
Return to Ukraine: This feature is part of an original Milwaukee Independent editorial series that recorded news from areas across Ukraine, including Milwaukee's sister city of Irpin, from June to July of 2023. It was the second time in the span of a year that the...

Bombs in the night: Why children in Uman are still traumatized by Russia’s missile attack
Russia fired more than 20 cruise missiles and two drones at Ukraine on April 28. The terrifying nighttime attack killed 23 people in the city of Uman, when two missiles slammed into an apartment building. Three children were among the dead. Uman is located in central Ukraine, about 134 miles south of Kyiv.

School Bunkers: When a national flag becomes a memorial to dead Ukrainian students
Return to Ukraine: This feature is part of an original Milwaukee Independent editorial series that recorded news from areas across Ukraine, including Milwaukee's sister city of Irpin, from June to July of 2023. It was the second time in the span of a year that the...

Cambodian mine clearing experts train Ukrainian soldiers how to safely remove Russian mines at home
Cambodian experts, whose country has the dubious distinction of being one of the world’s most contaminated by landmines, walked a group of Ukrainian soldiers through a minefield being actively cleared recently, hoping their decades of experience would help the...

More than a thousand words: Photojournalists capture a year of Russia’s brutality in searing images
A man runs after recovering items from a burning shop following a Russian attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine, March 25, 2022. 📸 Felipe Dana Russia’s invasion of Ukraine a year ago brought death, destruction and hardship to the country, and awakened fears of a new Cold War....

Kyiv Stands: President Joe Biden makes surprise visit to Ukraine in defiant display of Western solidarity
President Joe Biden swept unannounced into Ukraine on February 20 to meet with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a defiant display of Western solidarity with a country still fighting what he called “a brutal and unjust war” days before the first anniversary...

Possibility of arming Kyiv with advanced fighter jets puts rare strain on NATO unity
Ukraine’s push for fighter jets to help beat back Russia’s invasion force risks straining the unity of Ukraine’s Western allies, amid fears that the move could escalate the nearly year-long conflict and draw them deeper into the war. Ukrainian...

Western powers underscore long-term commitment to Ukraine with transfer of advanced weapons
By Monica Duffy Toft, Professor of International Politics and Director of the Center for Strategic Studies, The Fletcher School, Tufts University President Joe Biden announced on January 25, 2023, that the U.S. would send 31 M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine, following...

Support for Ukraine softens: Recent poll shows how shortsighted and selfish Americans are about aid
Support among the American public for providing Ukraine weaponry and direct economic assistance has softened as the Russian invasion nears a grim one-year milestone, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Forty-eight...

Stained with blood: IOC’s corruption betrays Olympic spirit with refusal to ban Russians from Paris games
Russian athletes have “no place” at next year’s 2024 Olympics while their country’s invasion of Ukraine continues, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told a summit of sports officials from 36 countries, saying that their potential presence...

Boots on the ground: North Korea sends thousands of combat troops to aid Russia’s brutal war in Ukraine
South Korea’s spy agency said that North Korea has deployed troops to support Russia’s war against Ukraine. The move directly brings a third country into the war and intensify a standoff between North Korea and the West. The South Korean announcement came...


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.