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]
Battlefield challenges: Ukraine fights for survival against Russia as political winds shift in U.S.
After almost 30 months of war with Russia, Ukraine’s difficulties on the battlefield are mounting even as its vital support from the United States is increasingly at the mercy of changing political winds. A six-month delay in military assistance from the U.S.,...
A brutal invader: Ukraine aims to brand Russia as a “terrorist state” in hearings at top UN court
Lawyers for Ukraine told the United Nations’ top court on June 6 that Russia bankrolled a “campaign of intimidation and terror” by rebels in eastern Ukraine starting in 2014 and sought to replace Crimea’s multiethnic community with...
Not planting means death: Ukraine farmers continue to risk losing their lives or livelihoods during war
A grassy lane rutted with tire tracks leads to Volodymyr Zaiets’ farm in southern Ukraine. He is careful, driving only within those shallow grooves, and veering away might cost him his life in the field dotted with explosive mines. Weeds grow tall where rows of...
Deterring Russian aggression: The United States will provide Ukraine with $1.2B in long-term security aid
The U.S. will provide $1.2 billion more in long-term military aid to Ukraine to further bolster its air defenses as Russia continues to pound Ukraine with drones, rockets, and surface-to-air missiles, the Pentagon said. The aid package will be provided under the...
Our Fire is Stronger Than Your Bombs: Ukrainian artists send defiant message to Russia at exhibit
As Ukrainian artists Jenya Polosina and Anna Ivanenko watched missiles descend on their country, the two decided to use their creativity to push back against Russia’s invasion. Working in the early days of the war from bunkers or sometimes without electricity...
Revisiting Red Dawn: How war imitated art with the 1984 movie that inspired Ukrainian resistance
By Alfio Leotta, Senior Lecturer, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington When images from Ukraine of abandoned Russian tanks tagged with the word “Wolverines” circulated in early April after the invaders failed to capture Kyiv, movie buffs got the message...
Famed British artist Banksy seeds inspirational art amid Ukraine’s war ruins in Borodyanka
Amid the ruins of war outside of Milwaukee’s Sister City of Irpin, the flowerings of art continues to appear. A delicate painting of a gymnast doing a handstand has popped up on the wall of a wrecked building outside of Kyiv and appears to be the work of the...
Eisenhower’s Vision: From Armistice Day to American volunteers fighting in Ukraine against tyranny
In 1918, at the end of four years of World War I’s devastation, leaders negotiated for the guns in Europe to fall silent once and for all on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. That armistice was not technically the end of the war, which came...
Irpin’s Reconstruction: Fundraising videos seek help for local families who lost their homes in the war
Milwaukee’s Sister City of Irpin began publishing video stories about local families who saw their homes destroyed in February and March by the brutal Russian invaders. The effort is part of an Irpin Reconstruction Fund to assist displaced residents. Former...
Global Target: Fears grow that Russia will attack undersea cables to disrupt Internet infrastructure
By David Stupples, Professor of Electrical and Electronic Engineering and Director of Electronic Warfare, City, University of London It may never be possible to determine definitively if underwater explosions on September 26 at the two Nord Stream gas pipelines were...
Beginning of the End: With all of Russia’s war failures it might be time to imagine a world without Putin
By Matthew Sussex, Fellow, Strategic and Defense Studies Centre, Australian National University Vladimir Putin’s bizarre ceremonies formalizing Russia’s illegal annexation in September of some 15% of Ukraine once again revealed the yawning chasm between Kremlin...
A cycle of escalation: At some point the nuclear threats by Kim Jong Un will need to be taken seriously
By Sung-Yoon Lee, Professor in Korean Studies, Tufts University As the West frets over the possibility of Vladimir Putin turning to nuclear weapons in Ukraine, there is a risk that similar threats posed by another pariah leader are not being treated as seriously,...
Navigating the darkness: Ukraine’s power blackouts return after Russia targets civilian infrastructure
During daytime, entire districts of Ukraine’s capital are disconnected from the power grid to save energy. Traffic lights stop, choking traffic, accompanied by the constant rumble of generators installed outside cafes and shops. Ukraine, including Kyiv, is...
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.
