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]
European leaders say Russia is waging a shadow war on the West that needs a collective response
Perched on the open ramp at the rear of a British Chinook helicopter, Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas flew home from the annual Spring Storm military exercises, pleased to see NATO allies cooperating. But she later said that other types of warfare were on her...
International donors race to supply generators and medical aid to hard-hit Ukraine ahead of winter’s grip
When Russian forces launched a military campaign against infrastructure in Ukraine nearly two months ago, they opened a front that carried the war along power lines, water mains and heating systems to homes, schools, offices and churches. The government in Kyiv and...
Fighting for the future: How Belarusian volunteers in Ukraine are staking their claim on democracy
By David Roger Marples, Distinguished University Professor of Russian and East European History, University of Alberta; and Katsiaryna Lozka, PhD Fellow in Political Science, Ghent University Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya recently visited...
More stories emerge about how Ukrainians hid orphaned children from Russia’s deportation scheme
Hours after Russia invaded Ukraine in February, health staff at a children’s hospital in the south started secretly planning how to save the babies. Russians were suspected of seizing orphan children and sending them to Russia, so staff at the children’s...
Widespread abuses in Ukraine: Reports of Russian torture site in Kherson at police detention center
For 10 days, Alesha Babenko was locked in a basement and regularly beaten by Russian soldiers. Bound, blindfolded and threatened with electric shocks, the 27-year-old pleaded for them to stop. “I thought I was going to die,” said Babenko. In September,...
A TikTok War: How selfie videos inside Ukraine are winning the global PR battle against Putin
By Anjana Susarla, Professor of Information Systems, Michigan State University “Russian President Vladimir Putin is locked in a vicious struggle not only to subjugate Ukraine, but also to keep his own citizens united in support of Kremlin policy. But as...
Acting Mayor Cavalier Johnson speaks with Mayor of Irpin as Milwaukee’s sister city faces brutal attack
Acting Mayor Cavalier Johnson spoke with the Ukrainian Mayor of Irpin, Milwaukee’s sister city, on March 4 for an update with the deteriorating conditions on the ground as Putin’s invasion stretches into its second week. With a population of roughly 62,000...
What makes the new Cold War more dangerous is that Putin’s authoritarian has rooted itself in America
The world is frighteningly locked in a battle to the death between democracy and authoritarianism. When Vladimir Putin issued a new threat to the West, telling his defense minister and his top military commander to place Russia’s nuclear forces on alert, it officially...
A Trump-Putin Network: It is time to confront the stunning number of Republicans with deep Kremlin ties
In 2014, the Putin regime invaded Ukraine’s Crimea. In 2016, the same regime invaded the United States. The former took place as a conventional military operation; the latter was a spectacular case of cyberwarfare, including disinformation that it was happening at all...
What is the point of saying “never again” if the world stays silent when bombs drop on the site of Babyn Yar?
As Russian President Putin tries his version of Hitler’s September 1939 “defensive” attack on Poland, we have reached the apex, the hinge, of American history’s Fourth Great Turning. And everybody sees it. Americans who were preoccupied with false claims of voter...
Support for Ukraine: A growing number of Milwaukee companies have halted their business in Russia
Numerous Wisconsin companies have closed their international facilities in Ukraine and Russia as the war and violence in Ukraine escalates. The state’s largest companies including SC Johnson, Johnson Controls and Harley-Davidson — are joining some of the...
Echoes of the Soviet collapse: Why Russia may find itself in an economic catastrophe similar to 1991
Russia appears to be on the verge of an economic collapse without parallel in its post-World War II history. The United States and European Union’s decision to sanction Russia’s central bank on February 28 has essentially severed the spinal cord of the country’s...
A 98-year-old Ukrainian woman escaped Russian occupation by walking in slippers for miles to safety
A 98-year-old woman in Ukraine who escaped Russian-occupied territory by walking almost 6 miles alone, wearing a pair of slippers and supported by a cane has been reunited with her family days after they were separated while fleeing to safety. Lidia Stepanivna...
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.
