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]

Relentless onslaught: Russia presses its summer offensive in Ukraine as the West tries to blunt the push
Slowly but steadily this summer, Russian troops are forging through Ukraine’s outgunned and undermanned defenses in a relentless onslaught, prompting the West to push for new weapons and strategies to shore up Kyiv. That, in turn, has brought new threats by...

The trauma of living: When being killed is the preferred choice to being disfigured from battle
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...

President Zelenskyy offers gratitude and awards to wounded soldiers while visiting Lviv Hospital
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...

Former Vice President Mike Pence visits Irpin during unannounced campaign trip to Kyiv
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...

Iryna Suslova: The superwoman saving Ukrainian children abducted by Russia
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...

President Maia Sandu details Putin’s violent plot to topple her government as prelude to seize Moldova
Moldova’s president outlined on February 13 what she described as a plot by Moscow to overthrow her country’s government using external saboteurs, put the nation “at the disposal of Russia” and derail its aspirations to one day join the...

Support of Iran regime by China’s Xi seen as enabling Russian terror campaigns against Ukraine and Syria
Chinese leader Xi Jinping expressed support for Iran during a visit on February 14 by its president as Tehran tries to expand relations with Beijing and Moscow to offset Western sanctions over its nuclear development. The official Chinese account of Xi’s meeting...

How Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine restructured global alliances and renewed old fears
Nearly a year after Russia invaded Ukraine, the battlefield has narrowed and stiff resistance has forced Moscow to scale back its military goals. But the diplomatic consequences of the war still reverberate worldwide. The fighting has reshaped global alliances,...

Russian aggression against Ukraine reminds Auschwitz survivors that lesson of “Never Again” was forgotten
Auschwitz-Birkenau survivors and other mourners commemorated the 78th anniversary in January of the Nazi German death camp’s liberation, some expressing horror that war has again shattered peace in Europe and the lesson of Never Again is being forgotten. The...

Why President Biden should follow President Truman’s courage and revive a Berlin-style Airlift for Ukraine
This is not the first time Russia has tried freezing and starving people to death to get them to submit. They have done it at least twice before, once successfully in 1932 and once unsuccessfully in 1949. Although I would not be born for another two years, I...

Winter of Discontent: Poor performance and low morale of Russian soldiers expected to worsen
By Liam Collins, Founding Director, Modern War Institute, United States Military Academy West Point With Russian troops digging trenches to prepare for an expected winter standoff, it would be easy to conclude that fighting will slow in Ukraine until after the ground...

Scrutiny of Orthodox Churches more than tug-of-war for spiritual independence of the Ukrainian soul
After its searches of holy sites belonging to Ukraine’s historic Orthodox church, the nation’s security agency posted photos of evidence it recovered, which included rubles, Russian passports and leaflets with messages from the Moscow patriarch. Supporters...

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...


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.