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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

Putin finally tells Russians the truth (sort of)

UkraineAlert Sep 30, 2025

Putin’s dream of demilitarizing Ukraine has turned into his worst nightmare

By Peter Dickinson

Putin had hoped to demilitarize and decapitate the Ukrainian state, but his self-defeating invasion has inadvertently created the militarily powerful and fiercely independent Ukraine he feared most of all, writes Peter Dickinson.
Conflict Defense Technologies
Putin finally tells Russians the truth (sort of)

UkraineAlert Oct 2, 2025

Drone superpower Ukraine is teaching NATO how to defend against Russia

By David Kirichenko

Ukraine’s unrivaled experience of drone warfare makes it a key partner for NATO and an indispensable ally in the defense of Europe as the continent faces up to the mounting threat posed by an expansionist Russia, writes David Kirichenko.
Conflict Defense Technologies
Putin finally tells Russians the truth (sort of)

UkraineAlert Oct 14, 2025

Russian strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure are a European problem

By Aura Sabadus

Russia’s strikes on Ukrainian energy infrastructure are no longer just a Ukrainian problem. Moscow’s bombing campaign will become a wider European issue unless more support is offered to Kyiv, writes Aura Sabadus.
Conflict Drones

Latest analysis

UkraineAlert

Nov 7, 2024

The West must respond to Russia’s rapidly escalating hybrid warfare

By Doug Livermore

Russia’s hybrid war against the West is escalating rapidly and requires a far firmer collective response, writes Doug Livermore.

Conflict
Cybersecurity

UkraineAlert

Nov 5, 2024

Putin’s 2022 ‘peace proposal’ was a blueprint for the destruction of Ukraine

By Peter Dickinson

New details of talks between Russia and Ukraine during spring 2022 confirm that Putin’s alleged peace proposal was in fact a call for unconditional surrender and a blueprint for the destruction of the Ukrainian state, writes Peter Dickinson.

Conflict
Disinformation

UkraineAlert

Nov 5, 2024

Ukraine needs Western support to boost its nuclear energy potential

By Stephen Blank

An energy equipment deal with Bulgaria offers Ukraine a chance to boost its nuclear power generation as the country braces for winter blackouts amid Russia’s energy infrastructure bombing campaign, writes Stephen Blank.

Conflict
European Union

UkraineAlert

Oct 31, 2024

Ukrainians brace for blackouts ahead of Russian winter air offensive

By Aura Sabadus

A recent lull in Russian missile attacks has led many Ukrainians to conclude that the Kremlin is stockpiling ahead of a major winter air offensive targeting Ukraine’s civilian energy infrastructure, writes Aura Sabadus.

Conflict
Geopolitics & Energy Security

UkraineAlert

Oct 31, 2024

Putin’s North Korean escalation is a direct result of Western weakness

By Peter Dickinson

The arrival of North Korean soldiers on the battlefields of Europe is the result of more than a decade of weak Western responses to escalating Russian aggression in Ukraine, writes Peter Dickinson.

Conflict
Defense Policy

UkraineAlert

Oct 31, 2024

Russia’s economy is overheating but Putin cannot change course

By Alexander Mertens

Russia’s wartime economy is in danger of overheating due to a combination of record military spending, sanctions pressures, and runaway inflation, but Vladimir Putin dare not change course, writes Alexander Mertens.

Conflict
Defense Industry

UkraineAlert

Oct 29, 2024

Putin’s war on Ukrainian heritage: Russia bombs first Soviet skyscraper

By Peter Dickinson

This week’s targeted Russian bombing of Kharkiv’s iconic Derzhprom building was the latest in a series of attacks on Ukrainian heritage sites that many regard as evidence of a deliberate Kremlin campaign to erase Ukraine’s national identity, writes Peter Dickinson.

Conflict
Disinformation

UkraineAlert

Oct 29, 2024

Putin is creating the conditions for Russian victory in Ukraine

By Mykola Bielieskov

Whoever wins the US presidential election, they will inherit a war in Ukraine that requires their urgent attention to prevent a Russian victory that would signal the decline of the West and transform the geopolitical landscape, writes Mykola Bielieskov.

Conflict
Defense Policy

UkraineAlert

Oct 24, 2024

Moldovan and Georgian elections highlight Russia’s regional ambitions

By Katherine Spencer

Russia is playing a key role in elections currently underway in Moldova and Georgia, underlining Moscow’s determination to retain its regional influence despite challenges created by the invasion of Ukraine, writes Katherine Spencer.

Civil Society
Conflict

UkraineAlert

Oct 24, 2024

North Korean troops could help Putin avoid a risky Russian mobilization

By Olivia Yanchik

Russian dictator Vladimir Putin has turned to his north Korean ally for troops to help cover his own army’s catastrophic losses in Ukraine and avoid a politically risky second wave of mobilization in Russia itself, writes Olivia Yanchik.

Conflict
Defense Industry
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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
Putin finally tells Russians the truth (sort of)

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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Putin finally tells Russians the truth (sort of)

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
Putin finally tells Russians the truth (sort of)

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.

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Content

UkraineAlert

Jun 27, 2019

Putin finally tells Russians the truth (sort of)

By Anders Åslund

In his annual television marathon “Direct Line with Vladimir Putin” on June 20, the Russian president did something unusual. To my knowledge, this is the first time he specified the impact of Western sanctions on Russia, which he usually presents as having a positive effect on the Russian economy because of import substitution. “Look, according […]

Conflict
Financial Sanctions and Economic Coercion

UkraineAlert

Jun 27, 2019

PACE sells out for 33 Million euros

By Andrej Lushnycky

On June 25, Russia was allowed back into the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) as a full voting member, after being expelled five years ago for its aggression in Ukraine. Through an innocuous sounding measure that pledged to strengthen the assembly’s decision-making processes on credentials and voting, 118 parliamentarians agreed to let […]

Conflict
Human Rights

UkraineAlert

Jun 27, 2019

Five predictions for Ukraine’s parliamentary elections

By Brian Mefford

With the Constitutional Court of Ukraine affirming the dismissal of parliament last week, new elections are moving ahead for July 21. Here are five predictions on what to expect. First, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s Servant of the People has a legitimate chance to form a one-party majority in the parliament. This would mark the first time since […]

Elections
Political Reform

UkraineAlert

Jun 25, 2019

How the US got rich, and Ukraine can too

By Diane Francis

The United States invented many things, but anti-trust laws and competition policy was arguably the most profound. These laws establish fair rules for the marketplace, and are why the country became the richest and most powerful on the planet. Without these, the United States would look like Russia or Ukraine: An impoverished populace and a […]

Central Europe
Financial Regulation

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
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