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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

Latest analysis

UkraineAlert

Mar 15, 2022

Vladimir Putin has nothing but bad options in Ukraine

By Doug Klain

After three weeks of military setbacks Putin now faces the choice of escalating his Ukraine war further and risking his own downfall or seeking a face-saving exit from a conflict that has united the world against Russia.

Conflict
Financial Sanctions and Economic Coercion

UkraineAlert

Mar 15, 2022

Ukraine’s exodus escalates as millions more prepare to flee Putin’s invasion

By Andrew D’Anieri

As Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine continues to escalate, millions more Ukrainians are expected to flee the country in the coming days to escape Russian war crimes and the horrors of occupation.

Conflict
Human Rights

UkraineAlert

Mar 15, 2022

Russia’s veto makes a mockery of the United Nations Security Council

By Shelby Magid, Yulia Shalomov

Putin’s Ukraine War has fundamentally transformed the geopolitical landscape. This new reality must be reflected in the way the United Nations Security Council functions. If not now, when?

Conflict
International Organizations

UkraineAlert

Mar 11, 2022

Lend-Lease 2022: How the US can back Ukraine against Putin

By Thomas S. Warrick

With Ukraine still in desperate need of more military aid to counter Vladimir Putin’s invasion, it is now time for the United States to revive the Lend-Lease program signed into law eighty-one years ago on March 11, 1941.

Conflict
Russia

UkraineAlert

Mar 10, 2022

Not just Putin: Most Russians support the war in Ukraine

By Peter Dickinson

Many international commentators have pinned the blame for the Russian invasion of Ukraine solely on Vladimir Putin but the chilling truth is that an overwhelming majority of ordinary Russians also support the war.

Conflict
Disinformation

UkraineAlert

Mar 9, 2022

Putin’s Ukraine War leaves Russia trapped behind a new iron curtain

By Dave Elseroad

Vladimir Putin’s Ukraine War is part of a broader Kremlin offensive against human rights and civil liberties that is also being waged inside Russia itself against the country’s marginalized and muzzled civil society.

Civil Society
Conflict

UkraineAlert

Mar 8, 2022

Ukraine urgently needs a multi-billion dollar international fund to survive

By Ilya Timtchenko

Ukraine urgently needs international financial support to prevent an economic collapse as a result of Vladimir Putin’s invasion and in order to fund the future rebuilding of the country’s devastated towns and cities.

Conflict
Economy & Business

UkraineAlert

Mar 7, 2022

Western weakness is enabling Russian war crimes in Ukraine

By Bohdan Klid

The democratic world has loudly condemned Vladimir Putin’s Ukrainian invasion but longstanding policies of Western weakness towards the Kremlin linger on and are now enabling Russian war crimes in Ukraine.

Conflict
European Union

UkraineAlert

Mar 6, 2022

Putin’s Ukraine War: Russian oligarchs must face tougher sanctions

By Diane Francis

Sanctions against Russian oligarchs are starting to work and have already caused some to speak out against Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. Their influence on the Kremlin is key and pressure on them must now continue.

Conflict
Economy & Business

UkraineAlert

Mar 6, 2022

Why Vladimir Putin is losing the information war to Ukraine

By Anders Åslund

Vladimir Putin has long enjoyed a reputation as a master of disinformation, but the Russian ruler is now clearly losing the global information war that is being waged alongside his invasion of Ukraine.

Civil Society
Conflict

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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

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
European Union

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

UkraineAlert

Apr 28, 2020

Three more reasons to be optimistic about Ukraine’s future

By Adair Appleton and Doug Klain

After spending a year studying with some of the best political scientists and economists in the United States, Ukraine's up-and-coming innovators make their mark.

Civil Society
Economy & Business

UkraineAlert

Apr 27, 2020

Is Saakashvili the right choice for Ukraine?

By Peter Dickinson

Former Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili is on the verge of a highly unlikely return to Ukrainian politics as the country's new Deputy Prime Minister for Reforms. What might this mean for Ukraine?

Democratic Transitions
Political Reform