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]
Missing in Action: Thousands of Ukrainians live in agony as they search for loved ones who disappeared
Iryna Reva stares at her phone, replaying the last video her 25-year-old son Vladyslav sent her from the front line before the volunteer soldier disappeared more than 19 months ago in a battle with Russian forces in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region. Reva is one...
International donors race to supply generators and medical aid to hard-hit Ukraine ahead of winter’s grip
When Russian forces launched a military campaign against infrastructure in Ukraine nearly two months ago, they opened a front that carried the war along power lines, water mains and heating systems to homes, schools, offices and churches. The government in Kyiv and...
Fighting for the future: How Belarusian volunteers in Ukraine are staking their claim on democracy
By David Roger Marples, Distinguished University Professor of Russian and East European History, University of Alberta; and Katsiaryna Lozka, PhD Fellow in Political Science, Ghent University Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya recently visited...
More stories emerge about how Ukrainians hid orphaned children from Russia’s deportation scheme
Hours after Russia invaded Ukraine in February, health staff at a children’s hospital in the south started secretly planning how to save the babies. Russians were suspected of seizing orphan children and sending them to Russia, so staff at the children’s...
Widespread abuses in Ukraine: Reports of Russian torture site in Kherson at police detention center
For 10 days, Alesha Babenko was locked in a basement and regularly beaten by Russian soldiers. Bound, blindfolded and threatened with electric shocks, the 27-year-old pleaded for them to stop. “I thought I was going to die,” said Babenko. In September,...
Psychological Wounds: Ukrainians face an unknown future with lasting PTSD from Putin’s invasion
Arash Javanbakht, Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Wayne State University “Polina came to our bedroom awakened by the sound of explosions. I didn’t know and still don’t know what to tell her. Her eyes today are full of fear and terror, eyes of all of us.” Alina, a...
Nearly two million people have fled Kyiv as Russian military forces commit war crimes against civilians
Kyiv’s Mayor has said that nearly two million people have fled the Ukrainian capital as Russian forces advance on the city. “From our information, one in two Kyiv residents has left the city,” Vitali Klitschko told Ukraine television on March 10. The greater Kyiv area...
Response to refugee crisis aims to sustain displaced Ukrainians in host communities for next few years
By Jose J. Padilla, Research Associate Professor, Old Dominion University; and Erika Frydenlund, Research Assistant Professor, Old Dominion University More than 2 million Ukrainians, almost all women and children, have fled Ukraine since Russia invaded on February 24,...
Fears of global food crisis: Putin’s assault on Ukraine has disrupted the output of a major “breadbasket”
As Russia intensifies its war on Ukraine, agricultural output from one of the world’s most productive growing regions has ground to a halt, causing the price of key food staples and fertilizer to approach record levels and sparking fears of worsening global...
I Testify: An open letter to the global media by Olena Zelenska condemning the mass murder of civilians
Ukraine’s First Lady Olena Zelenska issued an impassioned open letter to the global media on March 8 about the Russian invasion, condemning the “mass murder” of the country’s civilians. I Testify: An Open Letter to the Global Media by Olena...
Wisconsin’s congressional leaders vote for Ukraine aid and propose investigation of Putin as war criminal
Congressional leaders reached a bipartisan deal on March 9 to provide $13.6 billion in aid for Ukraine and European allies needed to counter a Russian blitzkrieg that has devastated parts of Ukraine. U.S. Representative Mark Pocan, a senior member of the House...
From Selma to Ukraine: Ordinary people continue fighting to protect their freedom and democracy
It was a beautiful sunny day on March 6 in Selma, Alabama, where thousands of people, including Vice President Kamala Harris and five other senior White House officials, met to honor the 57th anniversary of Bloody Sunday, when law enforcement officers tried to beat...
MAGA’s gift to Putin: Lack of U.S. aid making life very difficult on the front line in Ukraine
Delays in weapons deliveries from Western allies to Ukraine are opening a door for Russian battlefield advances, said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, making the fight “very difficult” along parts of the front line where the Kremlin’s forces...
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.
