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]

Why Putin covets Ukraine’s territory and turned Crimea from a playground into a battleground
Russia’s seizure of the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine exactly 11 years ago on March 18, 2014, was quick and bloodless, but it sent Moscow’s relations with the West into a downward spiral unseen since the Cold War. It also paved the way for Russia’s...

High price of war: Milwaukee reacts to how Pyongyang’s support in Ukraine is being repaid by Putin
North Korea’s calculated support for Russia in the Ukraine war has thrust the secretive nation into a new level of international intrigue. Reports from South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) revealed that Pyongyang sent thousands of troops to Moscow and...

Winter of war: Display of scorched transformer highlights Russia’s attack on civilian energy
A charred transformer from one of Ukraine’s badly damaged power plants has come to a square in Kyiv’s city center, a stark reminder of the scale of destruction caused by Russian strikes on the country’s energy system. The massive blackened hulk...

Ukrainian hospital clowns replace fear with joy for cancer patients who survived Russian missile strike
Their costumes are put on with surgical precision: Floppy hats, foam noses, bright clothes, and a ukulele with multicolored nylon strings. Moments later, in a beige hospital ward normally filled with the beeping sounds of medical machinery, there are bursts of giggles...

Cultivating grapes: Napa Valley teaches Ukrainian winemakers how to heal their war-ravaged vineyards
As the head of an association of winemakers in southern Ukraine, Georgiy Molchanov knows a lot about how to cultivate grapes but not so much how to grow them amid undetonated mines. But that was the situation he found himself in after a Russian rocket dropped the...

Battlefield challenges: Ukraine fights for survival against Russia as political winds shift in U.S.
After almost 30 months of war with Russia, Ukraine’s difficulties on the battlefield are mounting even as its vital support from the United States is increasingly at the mercy of changing political winds. A six-month delay in military assistance from the U.S.,...

Russia concludes secretive political trial with conviction of U.S. reporter on espionage charges
Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was falsely convicted on July 19 of espionage and sentenced to 16 years in a maximum-security prison on charges that his employer and the U.S. government have rejected as fabricated. The swift conclusion of the secretive...

A fight for survival: It is no longer just a personal battle for Ukraine’s athletes at the Paris Olympics
For Ukrainian hurdler Anna Ryzhykova, each stride on the Paris Olympic track will have meaning far beyond the time she clocks. Her competitions are no longer strictly an individual battle, but war on a different front. Her goal is not just gold, but also to rivet...

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...

A generation of hope: Young gymnast crushed by Russian missile dreams of competing in Paralympics
When Oleksandra Paskal first took to the mat as a 4-year-old, her rhythmic gymnastics coach saw nothing but potential in a sport where the Olympics is the ultimate goal. Then a Russian missile crushed her summer house in the southern Odesa region, burying her beneath...

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...

Betraying Ukraine: Trump reveals prior knowledge of Putin’s Mariupol Plan while bragging of hostage deal
Trump has been focused on 32-year-old “Wall Street Journal” reporter Evan Gershkovich, who was arrested by Russian officers in March 2023 and is currently on trial for the trumped-up charge of espionage. The State Department considers him “wrongfully...

Grassroots funding: Music concerts are part of the innovative ways groups seek to fund Ukraine’s military
The concert took place in an old movie studio in Kyiv, the location kept secret until the final moment in case it was the target of a Russian attack. More than 1,000 soldiers and young people gathered to listen to the artists who joined forces with a military brigade...


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.