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]

A toast to resilience: Ukrainian wines bring a taste of the country’s independent spirit to the United States
In a wine shop an hour outside of Washington, owner Arthur Lampros sampled a wine from a part of the world that was totally new to him, racking his brain to pin down the tastes on his tongue. Was there a body of water near the vineyards, he wondered, that would...

A deal with the devil: Why Ukraine cannot sign a peace deal with a Russian gun to its head
Signing an agreement with Russia to stop the war with Ukraine would amount to signing a deal with the devil, a top adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, as external forces seek to pressure the nation into a toxic deal to end more than two years of...

Secretary Blinken highlights global pledges to support Ukraine in case it is abandoned under Trump
Ukraine is on its way to being able to “stand on its own feet” militarily, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on July 19, noting that more than 20 other countries have pledged to maintain their own military and financial aid to the country even if the...

A changed battlefield: Ukraine’s bold gamble on an incursion moves deeper into Russian territory
Ukraine’s stunning incursion into Russia’s Kursk border region was a bold gamble for the country’s military commanders, who committed their limited resources to a risky assault on a nuclear-armed enemy with no assurance of success. After the first...

Ukrainian armed forces now control almost 390 square miles of Russia’s Kursk region in blow to Putin
Ukraine’s top military commander says his forces now control 386 square miles of Russia’s neighboring Kursk region, the first time a Ukrainian military official has publicly commented on the gains of the lightning incursion that has embarrassed the...

Pacifist principles: Japan steps away from its post-war policy by exporting military aid to Ukraine
Japan’s Cabinet approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets to other countries on March 26. It is the latest step away from the pacifist principles the country adopted at the end of World War II. The controversial decision to allow international...

Missing in Action: Thousands of Ukrainians live in agony as they search for loved ones who disappeared
Iryna Reva stares at her phone, replaying the last video her 25-year-old son Vladyslav sent her from the front line before the volunteer soldier disappeared more than 19 months ago in a battle with Russian forces in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region. Reva is one...

Targeting Beauty: Why Russia’s brutality aimed beyond destroying lives to also obliterate Ukrainian culture
By Ian Kuijt, Professor of Anthropology, University of Notre Dame; Pavlo Shydlovskyi, Associate Professor of Archaeology, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kiev; and William Donaruma, Professor of the Practice in Filmmaking, University of Notre Dame War does not...

Roman Kashpur: Ukrainian war hero conquers Tokyo Marathon 2024 with prosthetic leg
3.11 EXPLORING FUKUSHIMA: This feature is part of an original Milwaukee Independent editorial series that documented the 13th anniversary of the "Great East Japan Earthquake," tsunami, and nuclear accident, including the conditions of both the people and places that...

Defenders of Irpin honored at Bucha memorial on second anniversary of the liberation of Kyiv region
On the second anniversary of the liberation of Kyiv region from Russian invaders, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy took part in the raising of the State Flag of Ukraine on the flagpole of the Memorial to the Defenders of the Bucha Community. By the end of March 2022,...

Trauma still haunts some families as Ukraine’s Bucha rebuilds two years after brutal occupation
Days after Russian forces withdrew from the outskirts of Kyiv in the dramatic first weeks of their full-scale invasion two years ago, a photo revealed what had become of Nataliia Verbova’s missing husband. Poring over the image of eight men executed and lying on cold...

A “God’s-Eye” view: Aboard secretive surveillance flights keeping watch on Russian forces in Ukraine
Off in the distance, Ukraine is fighting for its survival. Seen from up here, in the cockpit of a French Air Force surveillance plane flying over neighboring Romania, the snow-dusted landscapes look deceptively peaceful. The dead from Russia’s war, the shattered...

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...


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.