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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

Some things never change

UkraineAlert Jul 1, 2025

Putin’s escalating air offensive is overwhelming Ukraine’s defenses

By Mykola Bielieskov

Russian aerial attacks on Ukrainian cities are expanding rapidly and killing growing numbers of civilians. Kyiv must urgently find technological solutions to defend against Putin’s escalating air offensive, writes Mykola Bielieskov.
Conflict Defense Industry
Some things never change

UkraineAlert Jun 23, 2025

‘All of Ukraine is ours’: Putin’s Russian imperialism is now on full display

By Peter Dickinson

Putin declared last week that “all of Ukraine is ours.” The Kremlin dictator’s revealing comments highlight the resurgent Russian imperialism driving Europe’s largest invasion since WWII, writes Peter Dickinson.
Conflict Disinformation
Some things never change

UkraineAlert Jun 12, 2025

Putin’s peace plan is a blueprint for the end of Ukrainian statehood

By Tetiana Kotelnykova

Russia’s peace plan sends a clear signal that Moscow wants to erase Ukraine as a state and as a nation. If Western leaders wish to avoid this catastrophic outcome, they must convince Putin that the alternative to a negotiated peace is a Russian defeat, writes Tetiana Kotelnykova.
Conflict Freedom and Prosperity

Latest analysis

UkraineAlert

Sep 2, 2025

Putin’s failed summer offensive shatters the myth of inevitable Russian victory

By Peter Dickinson

The failure of Putin’s summer offensive should help to debunk the persistent myth of inevitable Russian victory and persuade Western leaders to increase their support for the Ukrainian war effort, writes Peter Dickinson.

Conflict Defense Policy

UkraineAlert

Sep 2, 2025

Hungary has alternative energy options but chooses to rely on Russia

By Aura Sabadus

Ukraine’s recent strikes on the Kremlin’s Druzhba oil pipeline are not only an attack on Russia’s war economy. They are also a wake-up call for Hungarians highlighting the role being played by their country in the funding of Russia’s invasion, writes Aura Sabadus.

Conflict Economic Sanctions

UkraineAlert

Aug 28, 2025

Putin wants to capture Ukraine’s crucial fortress belt without a fight

By Mykola Bielieskov

As US-led efforts to end the Russian invasion of Ukraine struggle to gain momentum, Vladimir Putin’s latest territorial demands include the surrender of strategically vital and heavily fortified Ukrainian land in the east of the country, writes Mykola Bielieskov.

Conflict Disinformation

UkraineAlert

Aug 28, 2025

Russia attacks Zelenskyy’s legitimacy to derail US-led Ukraine peace talks

By Serhii Savelii

Moscow’s efforts to portray Zelenskyy as illegitimate fall apart when weighed against Ukraine’s Constitution and the country’s political practice, along with international precedents and legal tradition, writes Serhii Savelii.

Conflict Democratic Transitions

UkraineAlert

Aug 25, 2025

Putin’s hybrid war against Europe continues to escalate

By Maksym Beznosiuk

While international attention focuses on faltering US-led efforts to broker a peace deal and end the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Kremlin’s broader hybrid war against Europe continues to escalate, writes Maksym Beznosiuk.

Conflict Disinformation

UkraineAlert

Aug 21, 2025

Putin is facing a fuel crisis as Ukraine escalates attacks on Russian refineries

By David Kirichenko

Historically, Russia’s sheer size has always been considered one of its main strengths. By launching waves of airstrikes across the country, Ukraine now intends to exploit this vastness and transform it into Russia’s greatest weakness, writes David Kirichenko.

Conflict Defense Technologies

UkraineAlert

Aug 21, 2025

Sorry, Trump, but Putin will not pursue peace until he is facing military defeat

By Elena Davlikanova, Yevhen Malik

Following the recent Alaska and White House summits, it should now be abundantly clear that Russia will continue to reject Trump’s peace overtures until Putin faces significantly more pressure to end the war, write Elena Davlikanova and Yevhen Malik.

Conflict European Union

UkraineAlert

Aug 19, 2025

A strong Ukraine is the only realistic security guarantee against Russia

By Peter Dickinson

Ukraine’s Western partners are preparing to offer security guarantees as part of efforts to prevent further Russian aggression, but it far from clear whether Western governments would actually fight Russia on behalf of Ukraine, writes Peter Dickinson.

Conflict Defense Policy

UkraineAlert

Aug 16, 2025

Ukrainians left dismayed as Trump gives Putin the red carpet treatment

By Peter Dickinson

US President Donald Trump’s warm welcome for Russian President Vladimir Putin was a major PR victory for the Kremlin dictator that made for particularly painful viewing in Ukraine, writes Peter Dickinson.

Conflict Freedom and Prosperity

UkraineAlert

Aug 14, 2025

Alaska Summit: Trump wants a real estate deal. Putin wants an empire.

By Peter Dickinson

US President Donald Trump appears to view peace negotiations with Vladimir Putin as a geopolitical real estate deal. But the Russian dictator is not fighting for land in Ukraine. He is fighting for Ukraine itself, writes Peter Dickinson.

Conflict Democratic Transitions
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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
Some things never change

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.

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Some things never change

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
Some things never change

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 25, 2019

Some things never change

By Andreas Umland

Ukraine’s presidential election is less than a week away, and no candidate will win outright with fifty percent. Comedian Volodymyr Zelenskiy leads in the polls and will certainly be in the run-off election on April 21. The big question is whether he will face incumbent President Petro Poroshenko or former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. Poroshenko […]

Elections Eurozone

UkraineAlert

Mar 25, 2019

The real Russian candidate in Ukraine’s presidential race

By Anders Åslund

On March 22, nine days before the Ukrainian presidential election, Ukraine’s pro-Russian presidential candidate Yuriy Boyko went to Moscow to meet Russian Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev without prior announcement. It’s strange for a presidential candidate to visit a leader of a country with which it is at war, but that was only the beginning of […]

Corruption Elections

UkraineAlert

Mar 21, 2019

Real advice, not platitudes, keeps Kyiv on reform path

By Steven Pifer and William B. Taylor

We read with interest Adrian Karatnycky’s piece “Viceroys in Kyiv.”  We respect Mr. Karatnycky but have a different perspective. That shouldn’t surprise anyone. We each served as the American ambassador to Ukraine and, in that capacity as well as in other positions in the US government, urged our Ukrainian counterparts to move on reform—both in […]

Corruption Democratic Transitions

UkraineAlert

Mar 21, 2019

Viceroys in Kyiv?

By Adrian Karatnycky

How should Western diplomats advance democracy and the rule of law? In closed societies, as the late US diplomat Mark Palmer argued, US ambassadors should be clear voices for human rights and due process. They should monitor attacks on human rights, attend trials of dissidents, and speak out when they see major violations of freedom. […]

Corruption International Financial Institutions

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Mar 19, 2019

Want justice? In Ukraine, you may have to do it yourself

By Diane Francis

Viktor Handziuk speaks softly about his only child, daughter Kateryna, and how she defended classmates from bullies when growing up. Kateryna grew and took on Ukraine’s bullies by participating in the Orange and Euromaidan Revolutions and by becoming a lawyer and public administrator in Kherson, a city of 290,000 just one hour from Crimea. But […]

Civil Society Corruption

UkraineAlert

Mar 18, 2019

Why Ukraine should abandon efforts to criminalize illicit enrichment

By Leonid Antonenko

In late February, the Constitutional Court of Ukraine declared the criminal code’s article criminalizing illicit enrichment unconstitutional. The response among activists, independent media, and Western embassies was unanimous: the decision was a massive step back for Ukraine. It undid the small but real progress that the country had made toward prosecuting corrupt officials. However, this […]

Corruption Northern Europe

UkraineAlert

Mar 18, 2019

Bad advice

By Stephen Blank

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko recently advocated building intermediate-range ballistic missiles and cruise missiles to target and presumably use against Russia. No doubt Poroshenko calculated that he might gain a political advantage during the final days of a tough campaign for reelection by adopting this hawkish stance. And he may have also thought it made military […]

Conflict Defense Industry

UkraineAlert

Mar 18, 2019

Too little, too late

By Anders Åslund

On November 25, the Russian Coast Guard attacked and illegally seized three Ukrainian naval vessels on international waters in the Black Sea. The twenty-four Ukrainian sailors on board were arrested for having violated Russian territorial waters and jailed in the nineteenth century KGB prison Lefortovo in Moscow. These Ukrainian sailors were on Ukrainian vessels going […]

Conflict Economic Sanctions

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
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