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 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...
Revolution of Dignity: A war-weary Ukraine reflects on a decade of defending its freedom against Russia
It happens every November, when the cold descends on Kyiv. The change in weather always makes Dmytro Riznychenko think back, and he is overwhelmed by his emotions. “This is where it truly began,” Riznychenko said, walking through central Kyiv’s...
U.N. reports more than 40% of Ukrainians need humanitarian help under horrendous war conditions
Russian strikes are inflicting unimaginable suffering on the people of Ukraine and more than 40% of them need humanitarian assistance, a senior U.N. official told the U.N. Security Council on October 31. Ramesh Rajasingham, director of coordination in the U.N....
Ukrainian faith leaders tour U.S. with plea for continued support against brutal Russian invasion
Like other Christian, Jewish and Muslim clergy in a delegation of Ukrainian interfaith leaders visiting the United States, Bishop Ivan Rusyn has a succinct message: “Please, hear our cry.” The deputy senior bishop of the Ukrainian Evangelical Church, a...
Survivors share grief days after Russia wiped out residents of village with missile strike during funeral
U.N. and local investigators searched for answers on October 7 at the site of a Russian missile strike on a small Ukrainian village that days earlier turned its sole cafe to rubble and killed nearly 52 people gathered for a dead soldier’s wake, according to...
Political Pawns: Why Russia kidnaps Ukrainian children when it is unable to care for its own
By Clementine Fujimura, Professor of Anthropology, Area Studies and Russian, United States Naval Academy Since Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Russian soldiers have forcibly taken an estimated 16,000 Ukrainian children to Russia....
Echoes of Holodomor: Award-winning documentary “Famine” banned by Russia for depiction of cruel past
By Jeremy Hicks, Professor of Russian Culture and Film, Queen Mary University of London In October last year, Russia banned a documentary depicting the famine that hit parts of the Soviet Union including Ukraine between 1921 and 1923 and revoked the film’s screening...
Ukraine tries to outsmart a brutal Russian army distracted by rebellion and infighting
The ambush had been postponed three times before Ukrainian commanders decided one recent night that conditions were finally right. Cloaked in darkness, a battalion of Kyiv’s 129th brigade pressed ahead, advancing stealthily on unsuspecting Russian soldiers. By...
Ukrainian family finds closure after 16-month ordeal to identify a veteran killed in Bucha
The Ukrainian veteran’s gravestone carries his photograph and birthday, but the date Roman Shadlovskyi died is a broad estimate: March 2022, the month Russian forces brutally killed both civilians and military personnel before ending their occupation of Bucha....
Russia seeks to escalate global hunger crisis with halt to deal allowing Ukraine grain exports
Russia on July 17 halted a breakthrough wartime deal that allowed grain to flow from Ukraine to countries in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia where hunger is a growing threat and high food prices have pushed more people into poverty. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov...
Global currency: Why the invasion of Ukraine could give the Chinese yuan a boost against the U.S. dollar
By Tuugi Chuluun, Associate Professor of Finance, Loyola University Maryland The Chinese economy’s sheer size and rapid growth are impressive. China maintained one of the highest economic growth rates in the world for more than a quarter of a century, helping lift...
Ukraine’s dam collapse seen as worst environmental catastrophe in Europe since the Chernobyl disaster
The Russian destruction of the Kakhovka Dam was a fast-moving disaster that is swiftly evolving into a long-term environmental catastrophe affecting drinking water, food supplies and ecosystems reaching into the Black Sea. The short-term dangers can be seen from outer...
Damaged by war: Vibrant church in Ukraine rises as a symbol of the nation’s faith and culture
During the Orthodox Easter season, an extraordinary new church brought spiritual comfort to war-weary residents of the Ukrainian village of Lypivka. Two years ago, it also provided physical refuge from the horrors outside. Almost 100 residents sheltered in a basement...
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.