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 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...
True Stories of Love: Ukrainian women use painting as a therapy to help them cope with loss
In a sunlit art studio in Kyiv filled with easels and canvases, Iryna Farion puts the finishing touches on an oil painting with a predominantly dark color palette in shades of blue and brown. The artwork depicts two intertwined trees held together by their roots, as...
20 Days in Mariupol: How journalism illuminated the horrors of war in award-winning documentary
Associated Press video journalist Mstyslav Chernov had just broken out of Mariupol after covering the first 20 days of the Russian invasion of the Ukrainian city and was feeling guilty about leaving. He and his colleagues, photographer Evgeniy Maloletka and producer...
CIA whiz kid from “Charlie Wilson’s War” offers advice for the U.S. to help Ukraine win against Russia
After the last Soviet troops left Afghanistan in 1989, defeated by an insurgency equipped and guided by the United States, a two-word cable arrived at CIA headquarters: “WE WON.” It was one of the last moments of the Cold War, credited with helping push...
Hasidic life in Uman: A journey across Ukraine to the Tomb of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov
Return to Ukraine: This feature is part of an original Milwaukee Independent editorial series that recorded news from areas across Ukraine, including Milwaukee's sister city of Irpin, from June to July of 2023. It was the second time in the span of a year that the...
Munitions, radar, and new weapons: Ukraine to receive another $2.6 billion in military aid from United States
The U.S. will send Ukraine about $500 million in ammunition and equipment and spend more than $2 billion to buy an array of munitions, radar, and new weapons to help Kyiv counter drones in the coming months, the Pentagon said in April, as Ukrainian troops gear up for...
Organization of Russian journalists suspended from IFJ over invasion coverage of Ukraine
The International Federation of Journalists has suspended the Russian Union of Journalists on February 22 over its action since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and its role in annexed Ukrainian territories. The IFJ, which represents more than 600,000 media workers...
Déjà vu of Photojournalism: Forced progress, brutal invasion, mother nature, and the detritus of life
Back in March, I stood among the ruins of a neighborhood in Antakya, Türkiye. The Biblical city, once known as Antioch, had been devastated by the February 6 earthquake. As I took pictures of the collapsed residential areas, a member of the Turkish Red Crescent team I...
Volodymyr Zelenskyy: An interview with the Ukrainian President on what a Russian victory would mean
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned on March 28 that unless his nation wins a drawn-out battle in a key eastern city, Russia could begin building international support for a deal that could require Ukraine to make unacceptable compromises. He also invited...
Volodymyr Zelenskyy: Takeaways from the interview with the Ukrainian President on a train to Kyiv
A team of journalists from The Associated Press spent two days traveling by train with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as he visited the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia, which still faces regular shelling from Russian forces, and northern towns in the Sumy...
Calls for justice: Ukraine marks grim anniversary of the liberation of Bucha
Ukrainians marked the anniversary of the liberation of Bucha on March 31 with calls for remembrance and justice after a brutal Russian occupation that left hundreds of civilians dead in the streets and in mass graves, establishing the town near Kyiv as an epicenter of...
Hostage Taking: Russia’s secretive FSB arrests first U.S. correspondent since Cold War on allegation of spying
Russia’s security service arrested an American reporter for “The Wall Street Journal” on espionage charges, the first time a U.S. correspondent has been detained on spying accusations since the Cold War. The newspaper denied the allegations and...
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...
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.
