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]
Halyna Zdyrko Salapata: The sacrifices that come with supporting Ukraine while raising a family in Milwaukee
Parents in Milwaukee, like those everywhere, understand the universal struggle of balancing work with home life. It is a common challenge to juggle job responsibilities with family demands. What is more uncommon is when the job in Milwaukee involves raising funds to...
Russia’s Folly: NATO countries eye more help for Ukraine as Putin pushes his failing invasion
Ukraine’s Western allies have sent the country $70 billion in military aid to help thwart Russia’s full-scale invasion, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said in early April, and with no peace negotiations on the horizon the alliance is gearing up to...
A Unified Ukraine: Officials envision a liberated Crimea finally free from Putin’s bloody grasp
A top Ukrainian official on recently outlined a series of steps the government in Kyiv would take after the country reclaims control of Crimea, including dismantling the strategic bridge that links the seized Black Sea peninsula to Russia. Oleksiy Danilov, the...
Ukrainian forces consider how to “de-occupy” Crimea as Russia prepares for a likely spring offensive
By Christopher Morris, Teaching Fellow, School of Strategy, Marketing and Innovation, University of Portsmouth To paraphrase the words of the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, everything began with Crimea, and everything will end there as well. When Russia...
20 Days in Mariupol: Milwaukee Film Festival screens Ukrainian documentary that won praise at Sundance
The visceral documentary “20 Days in Mariupol” produced by the Associated Press and Frontline (PBS) was awarded the Sundance Film Festival’s World Cinema Documentary Competition Audience Award in January. It will be showcased locally during the 2023 Milwaukee Film...
From Irpin to Milwaukee: The price we still pay after six months of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine
As recent as August 17, just seven days short of six months after Putin’s unprovoked full-scale invasion to seize Ukraine began, two dozen bodies of unknown residents were discovered in the city of Bucha. Placed in freshly dug graves, their headstones were...
A Colonial War: How Ukrainians are resisting the centuries-old ambitions of Russia’s imperialism
By Ronald Suny, Professor of History and Political Science, University of Michigan The war being waged by Russia in Ukraine has been described in many ways – an attempt to recreate the USSR, a militant attempt to create a new Eurasia civilization, or a proxy war...
Unhealed Wounds: Russia’s aggression against Ukraine prompts Baltic states to remove Soviet memorials
By Dmitrijs Andrejevs, PhD candidate in Russian and East European Studies, University of Manchester Estonia is to remove all of its Soviet-era war monuments, the latest in a line of eastern European countries to go down this path. There are reportedly 200 to 400...
State-sponsored Antisemitism: Kremlin’s threat to close Jewish emigration service echoes Soviet era
By Shaul Kelner, Associate Professor of Sociology and Jewish Studies, Vanderbilt University Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 sparked a surge of refugees fleeing the war zone, but political repression and economic uncertainty have also prompted emigration...
Irpin is my home: Art project uses drawings by local children to produce t-shirt collection of solidarity
Deputies of Milwaukee’s Sister City showed their community spirit and national resilience during a public City Council meeting on August 22, by wearing T-shirts from the art project “Irpin – My Home.” The idea behind the patriotic apparel came...
Bravery as a brand: When Ukraine turned adverting its national image into an effective weapon of war
By Nadia Kaneva, Associate Professor, University of Denver When a preview of Vogue’s October 2022 cover story on Ukrainian first lady Olena Zelenska hit Twitter on July 26, 2022, reactions on social media were swift and polarized. Some critics said that a photo shoot...
Crimea’s significance: Understanding the new tactics by Ukraine to liberate its strategic territory
By Christoph Bluth, Professor of International Relations and Security, University of Bradford Russian president Vladimir Putin has reportedly replaced the commander of his Black Sea fleet just three days after an attack on the Russian Saki airbase in Crimea, as...
Doing more with less: How U.S. special operations are being influenced by lessons from the war in Ukraine
Forced to do more with less and learning from the war in Ukraine, U.S. special operations commanders are juggling how to add more high-tech experts to their teams while still cutting their overall forces by about 5,000 troops over the next five years. The conflicting...
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.
