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

Latest analysis

UkraineAlert

May 13, 2020

Ukraine approves crucial anti-oligarch banking law

By Anders Åslund

Ukrainian MPs have adopted legislation to prevent former owners regaining banks nationalized during recent reforms. The move is a blow to Ukrainian oligarch Ihor Kolomoiskiy and paves the way for a new IMF program.

Corruption Economy & Business

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

spotlight

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.

Follow us on social media
and support our work

Content

UkraineAlert

Jun 4, 2020

Ukraine needs a whole new approach to labor migration

By Lesia Dubenko

Millions of Ukrainians have sought employment abroad since 2014, creating one of the largest labor migrations in modern European history. This process is now reviving, creating new challenges for Ukraine.

Coronavirus Economy & Business

UkraineAlert

Jun 4, 2020

Moderate Zelenskyy makes a mockery of the Kremlin’s anti-Ukraine propaganda

By Vitaliy Syzov

Ukraine's President Zelenskyy has distanced himself from the national identity politics of his predecessor Petro Poroshenko. This has significantly complicated Russian efforts to demonize "nationalistic" Ukraine.

Conflict Disinformation

UkraineAlert

Jun 3, 2020

Bringing startup culture to the Ukrainian parliament

By Diane Francis

Bringing startup culture to Ukrainian politics: 34-year-old Kira Rudik is a Ukrainian IT industry superstar who entered parliament last summer and now leads the country’s reformist Holos Party.

Democratic Transitions Technology & Innovation

UkraineAlert

Jun 2, 2020

Trump’s G7 invite for Putin will encourage more war

By Yuliia Popyk

US President Donald Trump wants to invite Vladimir Putin to the next G7 summit, despite the Russian leader's refusal to end the aggression against Ukraine that led to his initial suspension from G8 in 2014.

Conflict France

UkraineAlert

May 31, 2020

To stop Putin, the Western world must revisit the 1994 Budapest Memorandum

By Oleksii Reznikov

Ukraine's Deputy PM for Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories Oleksii Reznikov says trust must be rebuilt before there can be peace with Russia. Returning to the framework of the Budapest Memorandum would be a step in the right direction, he argues.

Conflict Nuclear Nonproliferation

UkraineAlert

May 28, 2020

Zelenskyy at home: One year of domestic reform?

By Adrian Hoefer

Since his election last year, President Zelenskyy and his government have pledged to transform and energize Ukraine’s economy. Those pledges have not been realized. Why, and what should the government do this year to live up to those promises?

Economy & Business Political Reform

UkraineAlert

May 28, 2020

Can post-pandemic Ukraine prevent another exodus?

By Michael Druckman

As Ukraine looks towards the post-coronavirus recovery period, the country needs to think hard about how it intends to persuade millions of Ukrainian migrant workers to build their futures at home.

Coronavirus Economy & Business

UkraineAlert

May 27, 2020

Ukrainians who fled Putin face new pandemic realities

By Iryna Matviyishyn

For the estimated 1.4 million Ukrainians internally displaced by Putin's war, the past six years have brought traumatic change. These IDPs are now facing the further challenge of the coronavirus pandemic.

Conflict Coronavirus

UkraineAlert

May 26, 2020

Ukrainian local elections: Will Zelenskyy win again?

By Mykola Vorobiov

Ukraine will hold local elections in October 2020. This will be the first big test for President Zelenskyy and his Servant of the People party since landslide victories in 2019's presidential and parliamentary votes.

Democratic Transitions Elections

UkraineAlert

May 26, 2020

Statement by former US Ambassadors to Ukraine

By Atlantic Council Eurasia Center

Former US ambassadors to Ukraine emphasize the importance of the US-Ukraine relationship.

Politics & Diplomacy Ukraine