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]
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...
A tour in hell: What it takes to evacuate wounded Ukrainian soldiers from the battlefield
Their hands are blackened and grimy from the fight. Some are still wearing their combat boots, small flecks of black soil from the battlefield clinging to their torsos, bare under the emergency blanket. With bandaged heads and splinted limbs, the wounded soldiers are...
Medical volunteers in Ukraine set up specialty clinics to treat residents near the frontlines
In a cramped municipal building in this former front-line village, its front window boarded up with plywood, a team of volunteer specialist doctors have set up a mobile clinic. For the residents, it is a lifeline. Even before Russia’s war, access to specialist...
How Soviet-era attack helicopters allow Ukraine’s military to strike Russia from a distance
Skimming the treetops, three Soviet-era attack helicopters bank and swoop down on a field after an early-morning mission to the front lines in the fight against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Each day, they might fly three or four sorties, says the commander,...
Inflatable tanks: Russia’s brutal invasion behind surge in demand for fake armaments as decoys
The war in Ukraine has created a surge in demand for weapons and, apparently, also for inflatable fake armaments that can be deployed as decoys. A Czech company, Inflatech, is producing more than 30 different inflatable military decoys ranging from tanks and armored...
Maks Levin: Report finds that celebrated Ukrainian photojournalist was executed by Russian troops
A Ukrainian photojournalist and a soldier accompanying him who were killed in the first weeks of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine appear to have been “coldly executed” by Russian troops, Reporters Without Borders has concluded following an investigation into the killings....
Shared European security: Why it is not wise to be alone in a region with an authoritarian neighbor
By Steven Lamy, Professor Emeritus of Political Science and International Relations and Spatial Sciences, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences No one should be surprised by the decision made by the governments of Sweden and Finland to apply for full...
Poorer and less secure: Putin’s bloody assault of Ukraine is badly dividing other post-Soviet countries
By Nicole Jackson, Associate Professor of International Studies, Simon Fraser University The war in Ukraine is dividing the former Soviet region, making it poorer and less secure. Russia will take advantage of this. As a student three decades ago, I watched the Soviet...
Prelude to Annexation: Russian policy seeks to further weaponize citizenship in occupied Ukrainian territories
Russian dictator Vladimir Putin recently signed a decree to simplify the procedure for Russian citizenship, specifically for residents of the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson oblasts in occupied Ukraine. The action further proves that Putin had every intention to annex...
Hybrid Warfare: How Ukraine is winning the hearts and minds of Americans to offset Russia’s propaganda
By Michael Butler, Associate Professor of Political Science, Clark University Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has dominated headlines since late February 2022. The war struck a nerve among Western audiences, evoking a high degree of support for Ukraine. The reasons for...
Ukraine Fatigue: How the international community’s selfish distractions could hand Putin a victory
“It’s becoming harder to sell stories about Ukraine,” said one of my colleagues from an international TV crew, as we drove past bombed-out apartment blocks in the town of Borodianka, just north of Kyiv. “People are tired of this war.” I understand. I am Ukrainian....
An inhuman scheme: When Russia’s goal for war is to depopulate Ukraine and render it uninhabitable
By David Roger Marples, Distinguished University Professor of Russian and East European History, University of Alberta The Russian war on Ukraine has lasted well over 100 days. It has exacerbated a critical demographic situation in Ukraine, one that saw its population...
A home in ruins: Ukrainian high jumper keeps one eye on the raised bar and the other fixed on the war
Kateryna Tabashnyk’s success depends upon utter concentration on the here and now, on the height of the bar in front of her, and her body’s ability to leap it. That focus and drive is a requirement for all high-level athletes. But the 30-year-old Ukrainian...
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.
