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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

Putin’s Russia has weaponized World War II

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’s Russia has weaponized World War II

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’s Russia has weaponized World War II

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 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

UkraineAlert

Apr 3, 2023

Pressuring Ukraine into a premature peace would only encourage Putin

By Andriy Zagorodnyuk

Efforts to pressure Ukraine into accepting a land-for-peace deal in order to end the war misunderstand Putin’s imperial ambitions and will only encourage further Russian aggression, writes Andriy Zagorodnyuk.

Conflict
Freedom and Prosperity

UkraineAlert

Mar 30, 2023

Putin’s nuclear saber-rattling is a sign of dangerous Russian desperation

By Peter Dickinson

Vladimir Putin’s latest bout of nuclear saber-rattling is a clear indication of Russia’s growing desperation as the invasion of Ukraine continues to unravel amid mounting military losses, writes Peter Dickinson.

Conflict
Disinformation

UkraineAlert

Mar 30, 2023

Russia faces long economic decline as isolated Putin turns to China

By Diane Francis

With most avenues for Western partnership indefinitely closed and Russian economic dependency on China growing rapidly, Putin’s talk of “economic sovereignty” is starting to sound very hollow, writes Diane Francis.

China
Conflict

UkraineAlert

Mar 29, 2023

Putin’s plan for a new Russian Empire includes both Ukraine and Belarus

By Taras Kuzio

A leaked document detailing Russia’s plans to absorb Belarus highlights the scale of Vladimir Putin’s imperial ambitions and provides insights into the true objectives behind the invasion of Ukraine, writes Taras Kuzio.

Belarus
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
Putin’s Russia has weaponized World War II

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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Putin’s Russia has weaponized World War II

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’s Russia has weaponized World War II

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.

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UkraineAlert

May 12, 2020

Putin’s Russia has weaponized World War II

By Volodymyr Yelchenko

Vladimir Putin has turned the Red Army role in WWII into a victory cult designed to rebuild post-Soviet Russia's national pride and provide justification for Moscow's aggressive foreign policy in Ukraine and beyond.

Conflict
Eastern Europe

UkraineAlert

May 12, 2020

Can Saakashvili rescue Ukraine’s reform agenda?

By Peter Dickinson

President Zelenskyy has appointed former Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili to lead Ukraine's National Reform Council. What might this appointment mean for the country's stuttering reform agenda?

Democratic Transitions
Political Reform

UkraineAlert

May 12, 2020

Zelenskyy’s spring 2020 purge targets reformers

By Victor Tregubov

Ukraine's President Zelenskyy won election one year ago by promising to end decades of government corruption, but a spring 2020 purge of leading Ukrainian reformers raises grave doubts over the country's future direction.

Democratic Transitions
Rule of Law

UkraineAlert

May 11, 2020

Enough already

By Melinda Haring

There are other troubling signs on the horizon. Reformers in Kyiv worry that a revanche is underway and civil service, medical, anti-corruption, and fiscal reforms are all under attack.

Political Reform
Rule of Law

UkraineAlert

May 9, 2020

Time for Europe to stop fighting over World War II

By Nataliya Popovych and Volodymyr Sheiko

As the world marks the seventy-fifth anniversary of the Second World War, the conflict continues to loom large in the global imagination but there is no consensus about the conflict in Europe, creating challenges for the future of European integration.

Europe & Eurasia
European Union

UkraineAlert

May 7, 2020

US accuses Russia of “falsifying WWII history”

By Peter Dickinson

A strongly-worded new US joint statement issued together with foreign ministers from across Central and Eastern Europe takes aim at Russian attempts to rewrite history and sanitize the Soviet role in WWII.

Central Europe
Disinformation

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
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