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As the world watches the Russian invasion of Ukraine unfold, UkraineAlert delivers the best Atlantic Council expert insight and analysis on Ukraine twice a week directly to your inbox.

editor’s picks

Czar Putin wants a new age of empires

UkraineAlert Sep 30, 2025

Putin’s dream of demilitarizing Ukraine has turned into his worst nightmare

By Peter Dickinson

Putin had hoped to demilitarize and decapitate the Ukrainian state, but his self-defeating invasion has inadvertently created the militarily powerful and fiercely independent Ukraine he feared most of all, writes Peter Dickinson.
Conflict Defense Technologies
Czar Putin wants a new age of empires

UkraineAlert Oct 2, 2025

Drone superpower Ukraine is teaching NATO how to defend against Russia

By David Kirichenko

Ukraine’s unrivaled experience of drone warfare makes it a key partner for NATO and an indispensable ally in the defense of Europe as the continent faces up to the mounting threat posed by an expansionist Russia, writes David Kirichenko.
Conflict Defense Technologies
Czar Putin wants a new age of empires

UkraineAlert Oct 14, 2025

Russian strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure are a European problem

By Aura Sabadus

Russia’s strikes on Ukrainian energy infrastructure are no longer just a Ukrainian problem. Moscow’s bombing campaign will become a wider European issue unless more support is offered to Kyiv, writes Aura Sabadus.
Conflict Drones

Latest analysis

UkraineAlert

Jan 24, 2023

Leopard tank saga: Germany remains haunted by history

By Bohdan Vitvitsky

Germany’s reluctance to send Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine reflects the ongoing influence of war guilt for the crimes of the Nazi era while also highlighting a failure to differentiate between modern Russia and the Soviet Union.

Conflict
Defense Industry

UkraineAlert

Jan 18, 2023

Putin’s nuclear blackmail must not prevent the liberation of Crimea

By Andriy Zagorodnyuk

Putin’s nuclear threats have led some analysts to argue against attempts to liberate Crimea but bowing down to the Russian dictator’s nuclear blackmail would have dire consequences for global security, writes Andriy Zagorodnyuk.

Conflict
European Union

UkraineAlert

Jan 17, 2023

How Europe can help Ukraine defeat Russia and win the peace in 2023

By Andreas Umland

Continued European support for Ukraine will be crucial in 2023 and must feature a combination of intensification and innovation if Vladimir Putin’s invasion is to be decisively defeated, writes Andreas Umland.

Conflict
Economic Sanctions

UkraineAlert

Jan 17, 2023

Resisting Russia one artwork at a time

By Melinda Haring, Jacob Heilbrunn

“Women at War,” a new US exhibition featuring a variety of works by twelve female Ukrainian artists, is a symbol of defiance to the Kremlin’s latest attempt to expunge Ukraine’s heritage.

Civil Society
Conflict

UkraineAlert

Jan 16, 2023

Equity for Ukraine

By Ira Straus

Excessive Western caution in the supply of weapons to Ukraine is costing Ukrainian lives and fueling Russian impunity while preventing meaningful progress toward peace, writes Ira Straus.

Conflict
European Union

UkraineAlert

Jan 13, 2023

Ukraine struggles to repair power grid as Russian airstrikes continue

By Suriya Evans-Pritchard Jayanti

Efforts to repair damage to Ukraine’s electricity system caused by Russia’s strategic bombing campaign are being hampered by a shortage of critical transformers, writes Suriya Evans-Pritchard Jayanti.

Conflict
Drones

UkraineAlert

Jan 12, 2023

The West reaps multiple benefits from backing Ukraine against Russia

By Taras Kuzio

Ukraine is often viewed as being heavily reliant on Western support but the relationship is mutually beneficial and provides the West with enhanced security along with valuable intelligence, writes Taras Kuzio.

Conflict
Cybersecurity

UkraineAlert

Jan 12, 2023

Post-war Ukraine needs a smart digital transformation strategy

By Anatoly Motkin

The war with Russia is far from over but it is important to begin looking ahead and setting the stage for Ukraine’s post-war digital transformation, writes StrategEast Center president Anatoly Motkin.

Civil Society
Conflict

UkraineAlert

Jan 10, 2023

Putin’s faltering Ukraine invasion exposes limits of Russian propaganda

By Victor Tregubov

Putin’s invasion of Ukraine was supposed to be a short and victorious war. Instead, it has transformed him into a pariah and shattered Russia’s reputation as a military superpower. How could he have got it so wrong?

Conflict
Defense Policy

UkraineAlert

Jan 8, 2023

Ukraine’s nation-building progress spells doom for Putin’s Russian Empire

By Dennis Soltys

Many observers seek to blame Putin’s Ukraine invasion on his imperial ambitions or Kremlin fears over NATO expansion, but in reality the war is a desperate Russian response to Ukraine’s historic nation-building progress.

Civil Society
Conflict
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spotlight

Resilience in the face of adversity

Ukraine’s transformation

Ukraine has moved tentatively toward an open society and market economy since independence. The country has held several democratic elections and made halting progress in addressing corruption and state control in its economy. Since the 2014 Maidan Revolution, Ukraine has undertaken significant governance and economic reform and moved decisively toward a Europe-Atlantic foreign policy. Since 2022, Ukraine has resiliently continued to advance some reforms despite fighting for its very existence against the full-scale Russian invasion.

Learn more about Ukraine
Czar Putin wants a new age of empires

UkraineAlert Dec 5, 2024

Ukraine’s entrepreneurial class can drive the country’s economic recovery

The Ukrainian SME sector has demonstrated remarkable wartime resilience and is poised to be at the forefront of efforts to create a modern, innovative, postwar economy, writes Anton Waschuk.

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Czar Putin wants a new age of empires

UkraineAlert Oct 1, 2024

Ukraine needs international investors to maintain defense tech momentum

By Mykhailo Fedorov

Ukraine’s rapidly expanding defense tech sector can play a game-changing role in the war against Russia but Ukrainian companies need international investment, writes Ukraine’s Minister for Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov.
Artificial Intelligence Conflict
Czar Putin wants a new age of empires

UkraineAlert Jun 13, 2024

Ukraine officially embraces English as historic westward pivot continues

By Oleksiy Goncharenko

By officially embracing English, Ukrainians aim to support their country’s historic pivot away from Moscow and return to the European community of nations, writes Oleksiy Goncharenko.
Civil Society Conflict

The views expressed in UkraineAlert are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Atlantic Council, its staff, or its supporters.

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UkraineAlert

Jul 6, 2020

Czar Putin wants a new age of empires

By Nataliia Popovych and Danylo Lubkivsky

In both word and deed, Putin has made it clear that he rejects today’s rules-based international order and seeks to reverse the verdict of 1991. His vision for a new age of empires represents an existential challenge to the West.

Conflict
Disinformation

UkraineAlert

Jul 2, 2020

Analysis: Ukraine’s central bank governor quits post citing “political pressure”

By Peter Dickinson

National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) Governor Yakiv Smolii submitted his resignation on July 1 in what was widely seen as a major blow to Ukraine’s reform agenda. What does this mean for the country’s future direction?

Economy & Business
Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Jul 1, 2020

Ukraine’s central bank chief resigns leaving Zelenskyy’s reform credentials in tatters

By Anders Åslund

Ukraine’s reform agenda suffered a serious blow on July 1 when Yakiv Smolii, the highly respected governor of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU), resigned due to what he called “systematic political pressure.”

Financial Regulation
Macroeconomics

UkraineAlert

Jun 30, 2020

Ukraine’s powerful Interior Minister Avakov under fire over police reform failures

By Liliane Bivings

Ukraine's post-2014 police reforms were initially hailed as a success but have since unraveled alarmingly. Many now blame powerful Interior Minister Arsen Avakov for blocking genuine law enforcement reform.

Political Reform
Rule of Law

UkraineAlert

Jun 29, 2020

How fake news helped hide Soviet genocide in Ukraine

By Georgiy Kent

Stalin’s man-made famine in 1930s Ukraine ranks as one of the worst crimes of the twentieth century but it remains relatively unknown. The new movie "Mr. Jones" seeks to counter decades of disinformation.

Disinformation
Media

UkraineAlert

Jun 27, 2020

Russia is quietly occupying Ukraine’s information space

By Taras Kuzio

Viktor Medvedchuk is Ukraine's leading pro-Kremlin politician and a personal friend of Vladimir Putin. Medvedchuk's expanding media empire is sparking concerns over Russian influence in Ukraine's information space.

Conflict
Disinformation

UkraineAlert

Jun 25, 2020

How Russia weaponizes the language issue in Ukraine

By Iryna Matviyishyn

Critics of Ukraine's 2019 Language Law claim that it goes too far in promoting the Ukrainian language at the expense of Russian. Others claim attempts to politicize language policy will only help Putin.

Conflict
Disinformation

UkraineAlert

Jun 24, 2020

The US is defending Europe by blocking Putin’s pipeline

By Diane Francis

Berlin has slammed US plans to impose harsh new sanctions on Vladimir Putin's Nord Stream 2 pipeline, but critics see the project as a direct threat to European security and energy independence.

European Union
Geopolitics & Energy Security

UkraineAlert

Jun 24, 2020

Ukraine needs EU rules to avoid global gas imbalances

By Aura Sabadus

More than 50 European companies may be barred from exporting gas to Ukraine during the peak storage season if the Ukrainian and Slovak gas transmission system operators fail to reach a solution for an alternative transport route during an unplanned pipeline outage this summer.

Central Europe
Energy Markets & Governance

UkraineAlert

Jun 23, 2020

What John Bolton tells us about President Trump’s Ukraine policy

By Anders Åslund

Former White House national security advisor John Bolton's new book “The Room Where It Happened” is an extraordinary read that portrays President Trump as being deeply hostile towards Ukraine.

Politics & Diplomacy
Russia
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