UkraineAlert

UkraineAlert

UkraineAlert is a comprehensive online publication that provides regular news and analysis on developments in Ukraine’s politics, economy, civil society, and culture. UkraineAlert sources analysis and commentary from a wide-array of thought-leaders, politicians, experts, and activists from Ukraine and the global community. UkraineAlert has become a major publication in Ukraine’s news landscape and has established itself not only through its quality of content but also significant partnerships with English, Ukrainian, and Russian-language media through the country.

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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

Zelenskyy puts Ukraine’s Euro-Atlantic future at risk

UkraineAlert Sep 3, 2026

Putin cannot defeat NATO but he could divide and discredit the alliance

By Peter Dickinson

If Russian President Vladimir Putin decides to attack NATO, his goal will be to divide and discredit the alliance rather than actually defeating it, writes Peter Dickinson.
Conflict Defense Policy
Zelenskyy puts Ukraine’s Euro-Atlantic future at risk

UkraineAlert Aug 27, 2026

Ukrainians are not superheroes with endless powers of resilience

By Lauren Van Metre, Elena Davlikanova

By celebrating Ukrainian resilience as an almost superhuman quality, the international community risks obscuring the much less glamorous reality that Ukrainians are actually ordinary people who have endured extraordinary violence for far too long, write Lauren Van Metre and Elena Davlikanova.
Civil Society Conflict
Zelenskyy puts Ukraine’s Euro-Atlantic future at risk

UkraineAlert Aug 25, 2026

A cultural renaissance is reshaping national identity in wartime Ukraine

By Davis Richardson

Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine is fueling a defiant cultural outpouring that is redefining and strengthening Ukrainian national identity in ways that challenge centuries of Kremlin imperialism, writes Davis Richardson.
Civil Society Conflict

Latest analysis

UkraineAlert

Feb 21, 2019

Why Zelenskiy Is the Only Decent Choice for Ukraine

By Willem Aldershoff

Ukraine’s presidential elections present a difficult choice for those who want to see the country of 44 million finish what it started in 2014. Sadly all reliable opinion polls indicate that experienced reform candidates have no chance of winning. Former Defense Minister Anatoliy Hrytsenko currently stands at around 8 percent and Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovyi […]

Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Feb 19, 2019

Why a Zelenskyy presidency would be a disaster for Ukraine

By Alexander J. Motyl

The world is in turmoil, Russia occupies part of Ukraine, reforms in Ukraine still have a way to go, and democracy is in retreat in much of Europe. One would think Ukrainians would be worried. One would think they would want an experienced person at the helm. Instead, they may be about to elect the […]

Europe & Eurasia Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Feb 19, 2019

How Ukraine’s Leading Comedian Pulled Ahead in Polls

By Ruslan Minich

On February 7, hundreds of Facebook users in Ukraine posted videos with red nose filters. Everyone ended up looking like a clown, and that was precisely the point. Ukrainians are clowns because they’ve allowed the country’s political elites to rob them blind, keeping salaries and social benefits low. This was part of a flash mob […]

Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Feb 19, 2019

Ukraine Has Reached a Tipping Point

By Oksana Markarova

Elections may be on the horizon, but I firmly believe that reforms will continue through 2020 and beyond. Now that Ukraine has enshrined EU and NATO accession as the fundamental direction of the country, whoever comes to power, Ukraine’s pro-western economic development and orientation cannot be reversed.

Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Feb 14, 2019

What the death of the INF Treaty means for Kyiv

By Steven Pifer

With the United States and Russia no longer subject to the INF Treaty’s limits, it would be hard to argue that Ukraine and the other states should remain constrained by the agreement. If Kyiv chooses, it can invoke the same treaty right to withdraw that Washington exercised two weeks ago.

Arms Control Nuclear Nonproliferation

UkraineAlert

Feb 14, 2019

What Putin Must Hear in Munich

By Hanna Hopko

The international community is preparing for the annual Munich Security Conference, which will host more than 500 guests, including forty heads of state and government. I too will attend. Before the conference, I spent part of the week in Kramatorsk, an industrial city in eastern Ukraine, which underwent Russian occupation but was freed by the Ukrainian army. Four years ago, on February […]

Russia Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Feb 13, 2019

When a Pencil Is a Rocket Launcher: How We Talk about War

By Vitaliy Deynega

In Kyiv, the word karandash (pencil) is an ordinary word one might encounter in an office supply store or an elementary school. But in eastern Ukraine, where the conflict between Ukraine and Russia has killed more than 10,000, displaced another 1.7 million, and injured thousands of civilians, karandash means something else. The Ukrainian military uses […]

Russia Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Feb 13, 2019

We Do Far More than Meddle in Foreign Elections, Top Putin Aide Taunts

By Volodymyr Yermolenko

On February 11, Vladislav Surkov, one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s key aides and ideologists, published a reveling article called “Putin’s Long State.” It is not an ordinary piece; it makes the case for a new kind of Russian expansionism, and it should be read closely and taken seriously.

Russia Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Feb 12, 2019

Sure, Ukraine’s Not Going to Elect a Pro-Russian President, but There Are Many Other Ways the Kremlin Can Interfere

By Sofiya Kominko

Russia’s attack on Ukrainian ships in the Sea of Azov on November 25 may have been a probe to test the West’s reaction before the launch of other offensives aimed at destabilizing Ukraine at a crucial time. 2019 is Ukraine’s election year. And it is one of double importance with presidential and parliamentary elections taking place six […]

Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Feb 12, 2019

Ukrainian Comedian Tops Polls but Race Far from Over

By Katie LaRoque

In a few weeks, a comedian may become the next president of Ukraine. Volodymyr Zelenskiy, an unlikely candidate who plays an ordinary history teacher that becomes president of Ukraine on his popular TV series, Servant of the People, ranks as one of the most popular candidates in Ukraine’s March presidential election. Zelenskiy’s character, Vasyl Petrovych […]

Ukraine
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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
Zelenskyy puts Ukraine’s Euro-Atlantic future at risk

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
Zelenskyy puts Ukraine’s Euro-Atlantic future at risk

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
Zelenskyy puts Ukraine’s Euro-Atlantic future at risk

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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Content

UkraineAlert

Sep 23, 2020

Zelenskyy puts Ukraine’s Euro-Atlantic future at risk

By Mykola Vorobiov

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy promised to end an era of corruption. Instead, he stands accused of reversing the limited progress of recent years and opening the door to Russian revenge.

Democratic Transitions Political Reform

UkraineAlert

Sep 23, 2020

Ukraine’s booming IT sector can drive positive change

By Yuliya Rimsky and Filip Sasic

As the international community seeks ways to strengthen Ukraine’s Euro-Atlantic integration, private sector investment in the country’s attractive IT industry could have a significant and positive role to play.

Cybersecurity Entrepreneurship

UkraineAlert

Sep 22, 2020

Desecration of genocide monument marks a new low in Ukraine’s memory wars

By John Vsetecka

The recent desecration of an iconic Kyiv statue honoring the millions of Ukrainians killed in the 1930s Soviet genocide marks a new low in the memory wars over the country's troubled and traumatic past.

Disinformation Resilience & Society

UkraineAlert

Sep 17, 2020

Why Ukraine needs a new approach to refugees

By Eric Fritz

Refugees in Ukraine currently face an uphill battle, but if the Ukrainian authorities were to invest more in refugee resettlement programs, the country as a whole would inevitably benefit in the long run.

Human Rights Migration

BelarusAlert

Sep 17, 2020

Belarus national awakening offers hope for Ukraine as Soviet collapse continues

By Solomiia Bobrovska

Belarus has emerged from its post-Soviet slumber and has set out on the road to democracy. This is good news for the Belarusians themselves. It is also a welcome development for Ukraine but less so for Russia.

Belarus Democratic Transitions

UkraineAlert

Sep 15, 2020

Five predictions for Ukraine’s local elections

By Brian Mefford

Ukrainians go to the polls on October 25 to vote in local elections that promise to serve as the first major electoral test for President Zelenskyy since he and his party swept to power last year.

Elections Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Sep 15, 2020

Ukraine’s reforms remain hostage to corrupt courts

By Diane Francis

In 2019, political newcomer Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his party won historic election victories based largely on the appeal of promises to eradicate corruption. Just over one year later, these efforts are backsliding and in danger of ending entirely.

Corruption Democratic Transitions

UkraineAlert

Sep 10, 2020

Football fairytale: Ukrainian village team Kolos prepares to join Europa League elite

By Andrew Todos

Ukrainian village team Kolos Kovalivka are preparing to write a new chapter in what is one of the most romantic stories in modern football history when the club makes its Europa League debut in Greece.

Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Sep 10, 2020

Ukraine’s education sector reforms are under threat

By Liliia Hrynevych and Ivanna Kobernyk

Education sector reform is widely seen as one of the more successful transformations in Ukraine since the country’s 2014 Revolution of Dignity but this progress is now under threat amid a changing political climate.

Education Ukraine

BelarusAlert

Sep 8, 2020

Will Belarus follow Ukraine out of the Russian orbit?

By Taras Kuzio

By intervening in Belarus to prop up his fellow post-Soviet dictator Alyaksandr Lukashenka, Vladimir Putin risks repeating the mistakes made in Ukraine and fueling anti-Russian sentiment among Belarusians.

Belarus Conflict
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