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]
Targeting Beauty: Why Russia’s brutality aimed beyond destroying lives to also obliterate Ukrainian culture
By Ian Kuijt, Professor of Anthropology, University of Notre Dame; Pavlo Shydlovskyi, Associate Professor of Archaeology, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kiev; and William Donaruma, Professor of the Practice in Filmmaking, University of Notre Dame War does not...
Targeting civilian power supply earns Russia the “state sponsor of terror” title as winter’s chill begins to bite
By Jonathan Este, Associate Editor, International Affairs Editor Large areas of Ukraine, including the capital, are now without power much of the time. And still Moscow persists with its strategy of targeting Ukraine’s power supply. It’s hard to argue – as the Kremlin...
Putin’s Silence: Russian dictator leaves the bad news of humiliating withdrawals in Ukraine to other leaders
By mid-March, less than a month into the full-scale invasion by Russia, it was immediately clear that Putin’s ambitious campaign was not going to plan. What was expected to take a mere three days on February 24 is now on day 277 on November 27. In that time...
A powerful dynamic of war: Why Ukrainian liberation is an incentive for allies like the United States
Amid the death and destruction war leaves in its wake, there are powerful dynamics and narratives: domination, besieged populations, occupation and their counterparts, resistance, freedom and liberation. Vast swaths of Western and Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union...
Ukraine focuses suspicions on Orthodox Christian clergymen seen as being loyal to Russia
An investigation of a centuries-old monastic complex in Ukraine’s capital and other religious sites has underscored Ukrainian authorities’ suspicions about some Orthodox Christian clergymen they see as loyal to Russia despite Moscow’s nine month-old...
Sevgil Musaieva: The challenges of reporting from the frontlines of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine
Twice a day, Sevgil Musaieva, chief editor at Kyiv-based independent news site Ukrayinska Pravda, checks in with her staff, now scattered around the country for security reasons as they report amid Russian missile and rocket attacks. Musaieva knows the high stakes...
Where families once lived: War through the eyes of Ukrainians in the wasteland of Kharkiv
Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Russians have been bombing the second largest Ukrainian city, Kharkiv. Apparently, the Russian authorities were counting on the rapid conquest of a city close to the Russian border. However, Kharkiv...
Grief and Solidarity: Kyiv’s suburbs transformed from thriving community to ghost town in two weeks
As I write these lines in Kyiv, my window panes are shaking to the booms of air defense guns intercepting Russian aircraft over the city. On March 7, the Ukrainian military reported two airplanes had been downed. What happened to the city still feels like an old...
Wisconsin warns public about charity scams claiming to help those affected by Putin’s invasion of Ukraine
The Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP) and the Wisconsin Department of Financial Institutions (DFI) released information on March 1 urging the public to do their research before sending money to a charity claiming to help those...
Siege of Irpin: Images show conditions in Milwaukee’s sister city as civilians flee Russian bombardment
Urban centers in Ukraine, including Milwaukee’s sister city Irpin, continued to face increasingly heavy bombardment on March 6 and 7 as Russia’s nearly two-week invasion of its neighboring country intensified. Scenes of destruction were reported around the...
Ukraine is the first military engagement of America’s Proxy Wars where a country wants to fight for itself
In statements addressing Western leaders, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy has repeatedly asked for help fighting the Russians. But in a way very unusual from the American experience. He has asked to be armed with weapons. Zelenskyy said that no one needed to...
Why the Republican Party faces a crisis over Ukraine and the global support for its defense of democracy
Russia’s war on Ukraine continues. If the broader patterns of war apply, Russian president Vladimir Putin is making the war as senselessly brutal as possible, likely hoping to force Ukraine to give in quickly before global sanctions completely crush Russia and the...
Out of sight, out of mind: UN refugee chief worries the world has forgotten about the brutal war in Ukraine
The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said in late January that that he was worried that the war in Ukraine has been forgotten, as the country prepares to mark two years since the start of Russia’s brutal full-scale invasion. UNHCR chief Filippo Grandi also...
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.
