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]
Halyna Zdyrko Salapata: The sacrifices that come with supporting Ukraine while raising a family in Milwaukee
Parents in Milwaukee, like those everywhere, understand the universal struggle of balancing work with home life. It is a common challenge to juggle job responsibilities with family demands. What is more uncommon is when the job in Milwaukee involves raising funds to...
Why President Biden should follow President Truman’s courage and revive a Berlin-style Airlift for Ukraine
This is not the first time Russia has tried freezing and starving people to death to get them to submit. They have done it at least twice before, once successfully in 1932 and once unsuccessfully in 1949. Although I would not be born for another two years, I...
Winter of Discontent: Poor performance and low morale of Russian soldiers expected to worsen
By Liam Collins, Founding Director, Modern War Institute, United States Military Academy West Point With Russian troops digging trenches to prepare for an expected winter standoff, it would be easy to conclude that fighting will slow in Ukraine until after the ground...
Scrutiny of Orthodox Churches more than tug-of-war for spiritual independence of the Ukrainian soul
After its searches of holy sites belonging to Ukraine’s historic Orthodox church, the nation’s security agency posted photos of evidence it recovered, which included rubles, Russian passports and leaflets with messages from the Moscow patriarch. Supporters...
Weaponized Education: Ukraine schools remain a key battleground in the fight for the nation’s future
By Katja Kolcio, Associate Professor of Dance, Environmental Studies and Education Studies, Wesleyan University When Russian missiles struck Ukraine’s capital city of Kyiv on New Year’s Eve, the damaged buildings included a university and at least two schools. As a...
Maks Levin: Missing Ukrainian photojournalist known for documenting Russian war crimes found dead
In the early days of the Russian invasion, the photo of a family carrying their German Shepherd while fleeing across a destroyed bridge in Milwaukee’s sister city of Irpin went viral. It showed the world the humanitarian crisis unfolding from Putin’s...
Republican Role Model: Why Trump followers are inspired to emulate Putin’s brutal ideology in America
In a speech delivered on March 25 from his office in the Kremlin, Putin criticized the West’s “cancel culture.” He charged that it was “canceling” Russia, “an entire thousand-year-old country, our people.” It was the third time in recent months Putin has blasted the...
A Kremlin Coup: What fantasies about replacing Putin forget is another madman always waits in reserve
Vladimir Putin’s full-blown invasion of Ukraine aimed at toppling the Kyiv government, based on the preposterous claim that it is run by “neo-Nazis,” has produced Europe’s worst war in a generation, and it has taken a terrible toll on civilians. The Russian armed...
From Tulsa Massacre to Ukraine Invasion: Why erasing history books does not stop the timeless acts of hate
Looking at the events unfolding in Ukraine, it is not hard to compare them to what occurred during Nazi Germany’s invasion of Poland, which in 1939 marked the start of World War II, especially when you see how two dictators, like Hitler and Putin, followed the same...
Scenes from the frontlines: Sergi Mykhalchuk details the wreckage of Irpin in the wake of its liberation
Since the invasion of Ukraine began on February 24, Milwaukee’s sister city Irpin has been a strategic roadblock thwarting the Russian advance to capture the capital of Kyiv. After weeks of bloody fighting to dislodge the enemy from its foothold in the area, Ukrainian...
Zelenskyy’s Proposal: Ignoring the idea of protecting democracies is a disservice to the cause of peace
Ukraine’s President Zelenskyy proposed on March 16 that the world create a new agency, one that is well-armed enough to take on the most powerful nations, to defend smaller countries and, particularly, smaller democracies that are under attack from larger nations. The...
Irpin Liberated: Ukrainian forces drive Russians out of Milwaukee’s besieged Sister City and retake control
The mayor of Irpin, Milwaukee’s sister city, said on March 28 that the area had been “liberated” from Russian troops. After weeks of fierce fighting, Ukraine declared that its forces had retaken the strategic town in the northwestern suburb of Kyiv, as...
Doing more with less: How U.S. special operations are being influenced by lessons from the war in Ukraine
Forced to do more with less and learning from the war in Ukraine, U.S. special operations commanders are juggling how to add more high-tech experts to their teams while still cutting their overall forces by about 5,000 troops over the next five years. The conflicting...
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.
