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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

Jun 24, 2022

Ukraine edges closer to EU dream despite horrors of Putin’s war

By Peter Dickinson

Ukraine has this week secured official EU candidate status as the country seeks to advance its European integration ambitions while also defending itself against an ongoing Russian invasion.

Conflict
Democratic Transitions

UkraineAlert

Jun 23, 2022

What Ukrainians need most

By Melinda Haring

Aid efforts in support of Ukrainians are more necessary than ever but as the Russian invasion enters its fifth month there are worrying signs that international attention is now beginning to fade.

Civil Society
Conflict

UkraineAlert

Jun 21, 2022

“Historic victory for women’s rights”: Ukraine ratifies Istanbul Convention

By Iryna Slavinska

Ukraine has this week ratified the Istanbul Convention in a major step toward greater protections against domestic and gender-based violence as the country seeks to make further progress in its European integration bid.

Civil Society
Conflict

UkraineAlert

Jun 21, 2022

What would EU candidate status mean for Ukraine?

By Peter Dickinson

Ukrainians expect the country to be granted official EU candidate nation status at this week’s summit of European leaders but what would this mean for Ukraine’s broader ambitions for greater Euro-Atlantic integration?

Civil Society
Conflict

UkraineAlert

Jun 20, 2022

Time for EU leaders to honor Ukraine’s long fight for a European future

By Mark Temnycky

Ukraine hopes to receive official EU candidate nation status this week as the country’s long struggle for a European future enters a new phase while Ukrainian forces continue to defend against Russian invasion.

Conflict
Democratic Transitions

UkraineAlert

Jun 19, 2022

Croatia’s remarkable national journey is a source of hope for Ukraine

By Vladyslav Rashkovan

Croatia’s journey from war and partial occupation by a more powerful neighbor to membership of the European Union is a source of inspiration for Ukrainians as they fight against Russia’s ongoing invasion.

Conflict
Democratic Transitions

UkraineAlert

Jun 19, 2022

EU candidate status for Ukraine is the ideal response to Russian aggression

By Diane Francis

European Union leaders must decide this week whether to grant Ukraine official EU candidate nation status. This is a critically important moment for Ukrainians that will also shape the future direction of the entire continent.

Civil Society
Conflict

UkraineAlert

Jun 17, 2022

Unholy War: UK sanctions Putin’s Patriarch for backing Ukraine invasion

By Taras Kuzio

This week’s UK decision to impose sanctions on the head of the Russian Orthodox Church highlights international alarm over Patriarch Kirill’s enthusiastic support for Vladimir Putin’s war of imperial aggression in Ukraine.

Conflict
Disinformation

UkraineAlert

Jun 17, 2022

Why fear of provoking Putin is the most provocative policy of all

By Alyona Getmanchuk

It is now abundantly clear that cautious policies toward Russia driven by a misguided fear of provoking Putin have in fact provoked Europe’s biggest war since the days of Hitler and Stalin, argues Alyona Getmanchuk.

Conflict
Corruption

UkraineAlert

Jun 15, 2022

Vladimir Putin’s Ukraine invasion is the world’s first full-scale cyberwar

By Yurii Shchyhol

The current Russo-Ukrainian War is a major milestone in our developing understanding of cyber security. It is now clear that the invasion unleashed by Vladimir Putin on February 24 is the world’s first full-scale cyberwar.

Conflict
Cybersecurity

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.

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Content

UkraineAlert

Jun 25, 2019

Hard talk

By Melinda Haring

“Some of the greatest Ukrainian patriots aren’t even Ukrainian,” the eminently quotable public intellectual Yevhen Hlibovotsky is fond of saying. While he didn’t have John Sung Kim in mind, he might have. Kim, forty-five, is a wealthy Korean-American entrepreneur who built and sold two companies (one IPO, one all cash sale) in Silicon Valley before […]

Entrepreneurship
Inclusive Growth

UkraineAlert

Jun 24, 2019

What Ukraine’s new parties bring to the table

By Vitalii Rybak

June has been challenging month to keep up with Ukraine’s vibrant politics. Numerous new political parties—Servant of the People, Holos, Might and Honor, Ukrainian Strategy, and others—held party conventions and presented their candidates and programs for snap parliamentary elections slated for July 21. Let’s take a look at the three most important newcomers to the […]

Corruption
Elections

UkraineAlert

Jun 24, 2019

Zelenskyy starts off on the right foot with the business community

By Andy Hunder

“I obviously mistook the dress code,” confessed Viacheslav Klymov standing tieless onstage where Ukraine’s president sat clad in his Sunday-best in Kyiv, Ukraine, on June 20. The newly-elected president replied to the head of the Union of Ukrainian Entrepreneurs not to fret and instantly removed his own tie in front of the audience of seven […]

Inclusive Growth
Political Reform

UkraineAlert

Jun 20, 2019

An incomplete end to the MH17 tragedy

By Michael Bociurkiw

Aside from the blowback from Russia and its refusal to cooperate, there are a couple of storm clouds on the horizon for the resolution of the MH17 tragedy.

Conflict
Disinformation

UkraineAlert

Jun 17, 2019

One month into the Zelenskyy presidency and Ukraine’s still here

By Steven Pifer

Volodymyr Zelenskyy became Ukraine’s sixth president on May 20. The political neophyte’s election raised a host of questions about lack of governing experience, connections to oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky, the composition of his inner circle, and his priorities once in office. One month into Zelenskyy’s presidency, those questions still require answers, and we have yet to […]

Conflict
Corruption

UkraineAlert

Jun 17, 2019

What Zelenskyy should say in Berlin

By Diane Francis

Ukraine’s independence from the Soviet Union broke up the empire and its people have paid a monstrous price for generations. It’s time that Europe finally recognized its responsibility to this worthy nation, yearning to be free from Russian tyranny.

Energy Markets & Governance
Eurozone

UkraineAlert

Jun 17, 2019

Why are donors afraid of the prosecutor’s office?

By Yuri Polakiwsky

It’s no secret that the Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine has failed to be transformed in the post-Maidan period. But who is to blame? A high-level diplomat representing a G-7 country recently lamented that Ukraine’s major western partners deserve a large share of the blame for not providing direct assistance to the office. “You don’t […]

Corruption
Elections

UkraineAlert

Jun 13, 2019

One Ukraine? Think again.

By Roman Solchanyk

Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s recent landslide victory in Ukraine’s presidential election over incumbent Petro Poroshenko has spawned intense speculation. The most intriguing is the assertion that we are witnessing the long-awaited emergence of a “new” Ukraine that is no longer divided along overlapping regional, ethnic, and linguistic fault lines because Zelenskyy won in all of the country’s […]

Elections
Nationalism

UkraineAlert

Jun 9, 2019

Zelensky, Zelenskiy, Zelenskyy: spelling confusion doesn’t help Ukraine  

By Peter Dickinson

It would be unfair to expect Ukraine’s novice president to take over the reins of Europe’s largest country seamlessly. However, knowing how to spell his own name in English would seem a more realistic expectation. This did not appear to be the case during the first days of his administration, or at least that was […]

Disinformation
Media

UkraineAlert

Jun 4, 2019

How Kolomoisky does business in the United States

By Anders Åslund

The PrivatBank case shows that dirty money is not necessarily concentrated in the big cities and in real estate but can penetrate the real economy.

Corruption
Financial Regulation