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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

Brilliant, broke, and Ukrainian? Harvard still wants to hear from you

UkraineAlert May 13, 2025

Drone superpower: Ukrainian wartime innovation offers lessons for NATO

By David Kirichenko

Today’s Ukraine is now a drone superpower with an innovative domestic defense industry that can provide its NATO allies with important lessons in the realities of twenty-first century warfare, writes David Kirichenko.
Conflict Defense Industry
Brilliant, broke, and Ukrainian? Harvard still wants to hear from you

UkraineAlert May 6, 2025

The shadow of 1930s appeasement hangs over US-led peace talks

By Oleksandr Merezhko

As the world prepares to mark the eightieth anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany, the shadow of events leading up to World War II hangs over efforts to end Russia’s current invasion of Ukraine, writes Oleksandr Merezhko.
Conflict European Union
Brilliant, broke, and Ukrainian? Harvard still wants to hear from you

UkraineAlert Apr 17, 2025

The Ukrainian army is now Europe’s most credible security guarantee

By Pavlo Verkhniatskyi

As Europe confronts the new geopolitical realities of an expansionist Russia and an isolationist United States, the continent’s most credible security guarantee is now the Ukrainian Armed Forces, writes Pavlo Verkhniatskyi.
Conflict Defense Industry

Latest analysis

UkraineAlert

Jun 27, 2024

More senior Russian officials join Putin on war crimes wanted list

By Andrii Mikheiev

The International Criminal Court in The Hague has this week issued arrest warrants for former Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Russian army chief Valeriy Gerasimov for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the invasion of Ukraine, writes Andrii Mikheiev.

Conflict Freedom and Prosperity

UkraineAlert

Jun 26, 2024

Ukraine’s innovative drone industry helps counter Putin’s war machine

By David Kirichenko

Ukraine’s rapidly expanding and highly innovative domestic drone industry is helping the country compensate for Russia’s overwhelming advantages in both manpower and munitions, writes David Kirichenko.

Conflict Defense Industry

UkraineAlert

Jun 25, 2024

Historic day for Ukraine as EU launches official membership talks

By Peter Dickinson

Ukraine began official membership talks with the EU on June 25, providing the embattled East European nation with a powerful morale boost as it continues to fight for survival against Russia’s ongoing invasion, writes Peter Dickinson.

Conflict Democratic Transitions

UkraineAlert

Jun 24, 2024

Kyiv Pride event highlights changing attitudes in wartime Ukraine

By Aleksander Cwalina

Ukraine’s LGBTQI+ community is playing an important role in Ukraine’s ongoing European integration and defense against the Kremlin’s anti-Western crusade, writes Aleksander Cwalina.

Civil Society Conflict

UkraineAlert

Jun 21, 2024

Russia’s flagship international forum showcases Putin’s pariah status

By Edward Verona

The lack of international attendees at Russia’s flagship economic forum in June highlighted Vladimir Putin’s pariah status on the world stage, writes Edward Verona.

Conflict Economy & Business

UkraineAlert

Jun 20, 2024

Putin just reminded the world why Russia must lose

By Peter Dickinson

Vladimir Putin’s bogus recent peace proposal was in reality a call for Ukraine’s surrender that underlines his continued commitment to the destruction of the Ukrainian state, writes Peter Dickinson.

Conflict Defense Policy

UkraineAlert

Jun 20, 2024

FPV drones in Ukraine are changing modern warfare

By Tomas Milasauskas, Liudvikas Jaškūnas

First Person View (FPV) attack drones are shaping the battlefield in Ukraine and transforming our understanding of modern warfare, write Tomas Milasauskas and Liudvikas Jaškūnas.

Conflict Defense Industry

UkraineAlert

Jun 18, 2024

Ukraine’s peace summit offers solidarity but no breakthroughs

By Mercedes Sapuppo

Ukraine’s hotly anticipated peace summit in Switzerland produced plenty of solidarity but did not result in any major diplomatic breakthroughs, writes Mercedes Sapuppo.

Conflict Freedom and Prosperity

UkraineAlert

Jun 18, 2024

Holding Putin’s propagandists accountable for crimes in Ukraine

By Kristina Hook, Anna Vyshniakova

Calls are mounting to hold Putin’s propagandists accountable for their role in inciting Russian atrocities committed during the ongoing invasion of Ukraine, write Kristina Hook and Anna Vyshniakova.

Conflict Disinformation

UkraineAlert

Jun 18, 2024

Ukraine’s recovery cannot begin without enhanced air defenses

By Edward Verona

The recent Ukraine Recovery Conference in Berlin underlined the importance of additional air defenses before the country can begin to rebuild, writes Edward Verona.

Conflict Economy & Business
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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
Brilliant, broke, and Ukrainian? Harvard still wants to hear from you

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
Brilliant, broke, and Ukrainian? Harvard still wants to hear from you

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
Brilliant, broke, and Ukrainian? Harvard still wants to hear from you

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

Mar 14, 2019

Brilliant, broke, and Ukrainian? Harvard still wants to hear from you

By Melinda Haring

Eighteen-year-old Tetiana Tsunik, who grew up in a tiny village in eastern Ukraine, won a full ride to the Taft School in Watertown, Connecticut, a well-regarded prep school. There she’s taking two Advanced Placement courses plus six others. She’s part of the debate club, and is editor-in-chief of two student publications. Last summer, she spent […]

Civil Society Migration

UkraineAlert

Mar 12, 2019

Complications in Tbilisi’s friendship with Kyiv

By Tamar Chapidze and Andreas Umland

Georgia and Ukraine have become close political allies over the last two decades. That closeness may be currently under threat, however. Despite the Ukrainian Orthodox Church’s groundbreaking autocephaly, or independence, from the Russian Orthodox Church at the beginning of 2019, the Georgian Orthodox Church has failed to congratulate Ukrainian authorities or take any official position […]

Civil Society Nationalism

UkraineAlert

Mar 12, 2019

Why the West should be worried about Ukraine’s flagging fight against graft

By Oleksandra Drik

The last week of February was a great one for corrupt officials in Ukraine. They finally got off scot-free. Ukraine’s Constitutional Court (CCU) eliminated criminal liability for illicit enrichment. This decision is a major step back in Ukraine’s struggle to fight high-level corruption. (Incidentally, the US Ambassador to Ukraine agrees with this assessment.) And the […]

Corruption Political Reform

UkraineAlert

Mar 7, 2019

What a $2.8 Million scheme to rip off the state says about corruption in Ukraine

By Matthew Kupfer

Fictional houses, “dead souls,” but real embezzlement — it sounds like the plot of a horror film. But it’s actually a corruption scheme that ran for over eight years in Ukraine’s Kirovograd Oblast. From 2009 to 2017, the management of the regional gas distribution company, Kirovogradgaz, inserted hundreds of fictional addresses into its electronic billing […]

Corruption Oil and Gas

UkraineAlert

Mar 6, 2019

Could Zelenskiy be a reformer?

By Alexander J. Motyl

Comedian Volodymyr Zelenskiy tops the polls in Ukraine and may be the next president. Some argue that Zelenskiy is the country’s only shot at reform and that he might be able to break the old system.     Could Zelenskiy be a reformer? The short answer is: No. Here’s why. The American political scientist, Samuel Huntington, […]

Elections Political Reform

UkraineAlert

Mar 5, 2019

European involvement with Nord Stream 2 is a deal with the devil

By Stephen Blank

Apart from the bypassing of Ukraine and the potential corrupting of German politics, Nord Stream 2 essentially forces German and Eastern European states and customers to subsidize Russian state expenses and unwittingly assist in Naftogaz’s destruction.

Energy Markets & Governance European Union

UkraineAlert

Mar 5, 2019

Their brand is crisis

By Melinda Haring

Exactly five years ago, the country’s most important independent crisis communications center was set up in Kyiv in less than forty-eight hours. It started with a text message and a series of phone calls. Shortly after the protesters in the Maidan won and former Ukrainian president Victor Yanukovych fled on February 22, 2014, Russia’s “little […]

Civil Society Democratic Transitions

UkraineAlert

Mar 4, 2019

Why do so few presidential candidates support NATO and EU membership?

By Taras Kuzio

Out of forty-two candidates who are running for president in the Ukrainian elections on March 31, only eleven support NATO and EU membership. This represents a lower proportion of supporters than the over 300 deputies who voted on three occasions to change the constitution to include those two goals. Batkivshchina (Fatherland) party and the Radical […]

Defense Policy Elections

UkraineAlert

Mar 4, 2019

Who is ready to lead Ukraine?

By Kostiantyn Romashko

It’s election season in Ukraine. While there are forty-two candidates officially registered, the competition, according to recent polls, comes down to three: incumbent President Petro Poroshenko, former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, and newcomer and comedian Volodymyr Zelenskiy. In January, UkraineAlert examined the foreign policy views of the five leading candidates. Now we narrow the focus […]

Defense Policy Elections

UkraineAlert

Mar 1, 2019

No good deed goes unpunished in Ukraine

By Olena Halushka and Olena Shcherban

Ukraine is in danger of backsliding, big time, and few people realize just how serious it is. This week, the Constitutional Court eliminated a law which made corrupt officials liable for illicit enrichment. This will immediately result in the closure of sixty-five high-profile criminal cases. The court decision may jeopardize Ukraine’s relations with international institutions. […]

Corruption Political Reform
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