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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 21, 2022

Fear of provoking Putin is leading the Western world toward disaster

By Ilya Timtchenko

Western policy toward Russia has long been shaped by fear of provoking Vladimir Putin but this caution has only served to encourage further acts of Russian aggression culminating in the current war in Ukraine.

Conflict European Union

UkraineAlert

Mar 20, 2022

Bold Ukrainians defy Putin’s invasion and join European electricity grid

By Aura Sabadus

Despite the existential challenges posed by Russia's full-scale invasion of the country, Ukraine has managed in recent weeks to complete the country's connection to the European electricity grid.

Conflict Energy & Environment

UkraineAlert

Mar 19, 2022

Putin drank the Kremlin Kool-Aid

By Taras Kuzio

Russian President Vladimir Putin drank the Kremlin Kool-Aid and seems to have sincerely believed his disastrous Ukraine war would be an imperial triumph with minimal costs on the domestic and international fronts.

Conflict Disinformation

UkraineAlert

Mar 18, 2022

Why Russia’s anti-war movement matters

By Dylan Myles-Primakoff

While opinion polls consistently indicate strong Russian public support for Putin's Ukraine War, the country's anti-war movement also matters and may actually be larger than it at first appears.

Civil Society Conflict

UkraineAlert

Mar 17, 2022

Vladimir Putin’s war to crush Ukraine is part of a long Kremlin tradition

By Kristina Hook

Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine has stunned the world with its criminal brutality but the Russian invasion is actually very much in line with a long tradition of Kremlin policies aimed at crushing Ukraine.

Conflict Disinformation

UkraineAlert

Mar 17, 2022

The EU needs Ukraine

By Paul Grod

The European Union needs to embrace Ukraine's membership aspirations in order to demonstrate its own commitment to European values and its opposition to Vladimir Putin's authoritarian alternative.

Civil Society Conflict

UkraineAlert

Mar 16, 2022

Vladimir Putin has almost no chance of successfully occupying Ukraine

By Ben Connable

Vladimir Putin is throwing Russia's full military might into the invasion of Ukraine but any attempt to occupy large parts of the country is almost certainly doomed to fail.

Conflict Russia

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

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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.

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

Sep 1, 2020

Pro-Kremlin MPs and oligarchs wage lawfare on Ukraine’s reform agenda

By Tetiana Shevchuk

Ukraine’s Constitutional Court has declared the 2015 appointment of Artem Sytnyk as director of the country’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) unconstitutional, placing the country's reform agenda in doubt.

Corruption Democratic Transitions

UkraineAlert

Aug 25, 2020

How Ukraine can go from brain drain to brain gain

By Anton Waschuk and Andriy Kamenetskyy

Highly skilled Ukrainians continue to leave the country in order to further their careers. Greater efforts are required to keep this key demographic in the country for the benefit of the wider Ukrainian economy.

Economy & Business Education

UkraineAlert

Aug 22, 2020

Top Ukrainian oligarch Ihor Kolomoiskiy faces growing international legal troubles

By Diane Francis

Ukrainian oligarch Ihor Kolomoiskiy is facing growing international legal troubles as a range of investigations into alleged corrupt practices at his former bank PrivatBank continue to gain momentum.

Corruption Financial Regulation

UkraineAlert

Aug 21, 2020

Navalny joins long list of poisoned Putin critics

By Peter Dickinson

Expert Opinion: What does the suspected poisoning of Russian opposition leader and anti-corruption activist Alexey Navalny tell us about the current political climate in Putin’s Russia?

Russia

BelarusAlert

Aug 20, 2020

Lukashenka is wrong to use Ukraine as a cautionary tale

By Paul Niland

Belarusian dictator Alyaksandr Lukashenka has warned that pro-democracy protests will turn Belarus into another Ukraine - but Ukaine's woes are due to Russian aggression not the country's 2014 revolution.

Belarus Conflict

UkraineAlert

Aug 20, 2020

Vladimir Putin’s forever war against Ukraine continues

By Taras Kuzio

While geopolitical attention focuses on Belarus, Putin’s hybrid war in neighboring Ukraine continues. It has already sparked the outbreak of a new Cold War, and there is currently no end in sight to the conflict.

Conflict Disinformation

BelarusAlert

Aug 17, 2020

Alarm bells in Ukraine as Lukashenka calls on Putin to rescue his crumbling regime

By Bohdan Nahaylo

Belarus dictator Alyaksandr Lukashenka is on the verge of being swept out of office by a wave of pro-democracy protests. He has called on Putin to save his regime, sparking alarm in neighboring Ukraine.

Belarus Conflict

UkraineAlert

Aug 13, 2020

Front line communities and Ukraine’s local elections

By Andreas Umland

Ukraine plans to hold nationwide local elections in October 2020, but areas close to the front lines of the conflict with Russia in the east of the country will not participate. How can these regions be best managed?

Conflict Democratic Transitions

UkraineAlert

Aug 13, 2020

Ukraine must address the legal ambiguity enabling Putin’s not-so-secret war

By Wayne Jordash

Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine is one of the world's worst-kept secrets, but a failure to end the legal ambiguity shrouding Russia's role in the ongoing conflict makes progress towards peace impossible.

Conflict Disinformation

UkraineAlert

Aug 11, 2020

Zelenskyy’s old new faces

By Adrian Karatnycky

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy came to power in 2019 promising a new era in Ukrainian politics but the recent appointment of figures from the discredited past raises questions about this fresh start.

Democratic Transitions Political Reform