Stay Updated

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

Putin has hijacked WWII to justify Russian aggression

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
Putin has hijacked WWII to justify Russian aggression

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
Putin has hijacked WWII to justify Russian aggression

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

Apr 13, 2023

Putin cancels Victory Day parades as Ukraine invasion continues to unravel

By Peter Dickinson

The cancellation of Victory Day parades in multiple Russian regional capitals is a blow to Putin’s personal prestige that exposes the grim reality behind Moscow’s upbeat propaganda portrayals of the faltering Ukraine invasion, writes Peter Dickinson.

Conflict
Disinformation

UkraineAlert

Apr 12, 2023

Poland and Ukraine: The emerging alliance that could reshape Europe

By Taras Kuzio

Poland’s leading role in the European response to Russia’s Ukraine invasion is fueling talk of a eastward shift in Europe’s geopolitical center of gravity with the Polish-Ukrainian alliance set to become increasingly influential.

Conflict
Defense Industry

UkraineAlert

Apr 11, 2023

Ukraine’s energy sector survives winter

By Suriya Evans-Pritchard Jayanti

Vladimir Putin’s winter bombing campaign targeting Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure failed to achieve its goal of breaking Ukrainian resistance and freezing the country into submission, writes Suriya Evans-Pritchard Jayanti.

Conflict
Energy Markets & Governance

UkraineAlert

Apr 11, 2023

Ukraine resumes electricity exports in latest show of wartime resilience

By Aura Sabadus

Ukraine resumed energy exports to Europe in early April. The move confirmed the failure of Russia’s six-month energy infrastructure bombing campaign and underlined Ukraine’s remarkable wartime resilience, writes Aura Sabadus.

Conflict
Energy Transitions

UkraineAlert

Apr 10, 2023

Russian nukes in Belarus: Putin’s creeping annexation continues

By Hanna Liubakova

Putin’s plan to place nukes in Belarus has been widely interpreted as as an escalation in his ongoing nuclear saber-rattling tactics but it will also greatly strengthen the Russian dictator’s grip over the neighboring country.

Belarus
Conflict

UkraineAlert

Apr 8, 2023

Human wave tactics are demoralizing the Russian army in Ukraine

By Olivia Yanchik

Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has not gone according to plan but he still hopes to win a long war of attrition. However, Russia’s reliance on human wave tactics risks undermining morale within his invading army, writes Olivia Yanchik.

Conflict
Defense Policy

UkraineAlert

Apr 6, 2023

NATO poses a threat to Russian imperialism not Russian security

By Peter Dickinson

Russia’s passive acceptance of neighboring Finland’s NATO membership raises serious questions over the Kremlin’s efforts to portray the invasion of Ukraine as a response to NATO expansion, writes Peter Dickinson.

Conflict
Disinformation

UkraineAlert

Apr 6, 2023

Anti-war Russians struggle to be heard

By Christopher Isajiw

The Kremlin has worked hard to create the impression of overwhelming Russian public support for the invasion of Ukraine but anti-war sentiment may become more visible if Putin’s army suffers further battlefield defeats, writes Christopher Isajiw.

Civil Society
Conflict

UkraineAlert

Apr 4, 2023

Russia’s Wagner Group is a feature not a bug of the Putin regime

By Allen Maggard

Russian private paramilitaries like the Wagner Group are a symptom of the institutionalized corruption at the heart of Putin’s regime and not just another instrument in Russia’s hybrid warfare toolbox, writes Allen Maggard.

Conflict
Disinformation

UkraineAlert

Apr 4, 2023

How to keep Western tech out of Russian weapons

By Aleksander Cwalina

The Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center convened a panel of experts for a virtual event in March to discuss how to prevent the use of Western technologies in Russian weapons, reports Aleksander Cwalina.

Arms Control
Conflict
Load More

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
Putin has hijacked WWII to justify Russian aggression

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.

Read More
Putin has hijacked WWII to justify Russian aggression

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
Putin has hijacked WWII to justify Russian aggression

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.

The Eurasia Center’s mission is to enhance transatlantic cooperation in promoting stability, democratic values, and prosperity in Eurasia, from Eastern Europe and Turkey in the West to the Caucasus, Russia, and Central Asia in the East.

Learn more

Follow us on social media
and support our work

support our work

Content

UkraineAlert

May 7, 2020

Putin has hijacked WWII to justify Russian aggression

By Solomiia Bobrovska

Under Vladimir Putin, Russia's annual Victory Day holiday has morphed from a solemn WWII memorial honoring Soviet losses into a grandiose nationalistic celebration of Russia's return to the world stage.

Nationalism
Russia

UkraineAlert

May 7, 2020

Putin woos Trump with WWII nostalgia but Russia’s hybrid war continues

By Eugene Czolij

Presidents Trump and Putin recently issued a joint statement praising the WWII meeting of US and Soviet troops as “an example of how our countries can build trust.” However, with Russia waging a hybrid war against the West, trust is in short supply.

Conflict
Politics & Diplomacy

UkraineAlert

May 4, 2020

East Ukraine: Between a pandemic and a war zone

By Eric Fritz and Frank Martin

Covid-19 is a global crisis, but its impacts on war zones will prove to be uniquely tragic. Nowhere is this more evident than in the conflict-stricken Donbas region of eastern Ukraine.

Conflict
Coronavirus

UkraineAlert

May 4, 2020

Zelenskyy prefers to stay silent on Russian war guilt

By Taras Kuzio

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has made ending the country’s ongoing war with Russia his top priority. However, his reluctance to hold Moscow publicly responsible for the conflict risks complicating efforts to secure peace.

Conflict
Russia

UkraineAlert

May 4, 2020

A serious but flawed look at peace in the Donbas

By John E. Herbst

The conflict in the Donbas cannot be solved by Ukraine and Russia alone, but the West must not unconditionally accept a "Russian consensus" to achieve it.

Conflict
Economic Sanctions

UkraineAlert

May 3, 2020

Zelenskyy fails to deliver on promise of a new beginning

By David Clark

Volodymyr Zelenskyy won the Ukrainian presidency in spring 2019 as a political outsider promising an end to decades of corrupt government. One year on, Ukrainians are still waiting for evidence of this fight against corruption.

Democratic Transitions
Populism

UkraineAlert

Apr 30, 2020

Putin must end Ukraine war if he wants sanctions relief

By Lisa Yasko

The Kremlin is calling for sanctions to be relaxed as part of the global response to the coronavirus pandemic, but Putin has shown no accompanying inclination to end Russia's six-year war in Ukraine.

Conflict
Coronavirus

UkraineAlert

Apr 30, 2020

Ukraine must continue electoral reform in 2020

By Harald Jepsen

Ukraine's fledgling democracy has made huge progress in recent years, but further reform of the country's Election Code is urgently required ahead of October's planned local elections, argues Harald Jepsen.

Democratic Transitions
Elections

UkraineAlert

Apr 30, 2020

Broadening Ukraine’s foreign policy horizons in the post-coronavirus world

By Hanna Shelest

Ukraine's foreign policy has traditionally focused on the choice between Russia and the West, but the country could benefit from a more global approach to diplomacy with clearly defined regional strategies.

Coronavirus
Politics & Diplomacy

UkraineAlert

Apr 28, 2020

Coronavirus crisis spells doom for Putin’s dreams of rebuilding the Soviet empire

By Solomiia Bobrovska

The coronavirus crisis has sparked a collapse in oil prices that is hitting Russia hard. With the Kremlin coffers increasingly empty, could change be on the horizon in Moscow for the first time since 1991?

Coronavirus
Russia
Load More