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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

Oct 25, 2022

Europe must make this the last winter of weaponized Russian energy exports

By Arseniy Yatsenyuk

Russian President Vladimir Putin hopes to freeze Ukrainians into submission in the coming months while also using energy supply cuts to pressure European leaders into abandoning their support for Ukraine.

Energy Markets & Governance Energy Transitions

UkraineAlert

Oct 25, 2022

Poll: 86% of Ukrainians want to fight on despite Russian terror bombing

By Peter Dickinson

Vladimir Putin's campaign to destroy Ukraine's critical civilian infrastructure marks a dramatic escalation in the Russian invasion of Ukraine as the increasingly desperate Russian ruler seeks to avert military defeat.

Conflict Human Rights

UkraineAlert

Oct 21, 2022

Ukraine’s growing tech sector offers hope amid wartime economic pain

By Dathan Duplichen

Ukraine's tech sector offers a rare glimmer of light amid the economic gloom of Russia's ongoing invasion with Ukrainian IT industry export revenues actually up by 23% during the first six months of 2022.

Conflict Digital Policy

UkraineAlert

Oct 20, 2022

Classical concert captures Ukraine’s defiant response to Russian invasion

By Jacob Heilbrunn

Ukraine's defiant spirit was on display on October 18 at a Kennedy Center concert organized by the Chopivsky Family Foundation and featuring the New Era Orchestra of Kyiv together with celebrated violinist Joshua Bell.

Civil Society Conflict

UkraineAlert

Oct 19, 2022

Winning the peace through democratic progress in post-war Ukraine

By Peter Erben, Gio Kobakhidze

As Ukraine’s army continues to liberate the country from Russian occupation, it is critical that Ukraine’s military success is buttressed by continued democratic progress. Ukraine must not only win the war, but also win the peace.

Civil Society Conflict

UkraineAlert

Oct 18, 2022

Bowing to Putin’s nuclear blackmail will make nuclear war more likely

By Andriy Zagorodnyuk

Giving in to Putin’s nuclear blackmail would not end the war in Ukraine. What it would do is set a disastrous precedent that makes a future nuclear war far more likely while encouraging uncontrolled nuclear proliferation.

Arms Control Conflict

UkraineAlert

Oct 17, 2022

Ukraine has a Russia problem not a Putin problem

By Taras Kuzio

Ukraine appears poised to defeat Putin's invasion but Russia will continue to pose an existential threat to Ukrainian statehood until Russians learn to accept that Ukraine is a sovereign and independent nation.

Conflict Democratic Transitions

UkraineAlert

Oct 17, 2022

Putin’s blackout blitz: Russia aims to freeze Ukrainians into surrender

By Suriya Evans-Pritchard Jayanti

Russia is seeking to plunge Ukraine into darkness ahead of the winter heating season by destroying the country's energy infrastructure. Ukraine's partners must step in to make sure Ukrainians are not frozen into surrender.

Conflict Energy Markets & Governance

UkraineAlert

Oct 13, 2022

Meet the Ukrainian TV star fundraising millions for the country’s war effort

By Oleksii Antoniuk, Andrew D’Anieri

TV host Serhiy Prytula is being tipped by many as a rising star of Ukrainian politics but for now he is fully occupied in his current role leading crowdfunding efforts for the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

Civil Society Conflict

UkraineAlert

Oct 12, 2022

No, Russia’s airstrike escalation is not retaliation for the Crimean Bridge

By Razom Advocacy Team

International media coverage depicting Russia's recent airstrike escalation as retaliation for the alleged Ukrainian attack on the Crimean Bridge risks creating false equivalency over Vladimir Putin's war of aggression.

Conflict Disinformation

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Content

UkraineAlert

May 16, 2019

Why the West must lean in now

By Michael Carpenter

On April 21, TV comedian Volodymyr Zelenskiy won a landslide victory over incumbent President Petro Poroshenko in the second round of Ukraine’s presidential election. By winning an impressive 73 percent of the vote, Zelenskiy secured a strong popular mandate. Questions abound about Zelenskiy’s core political beliefs and whether his performance in office will match his […]

Conflict Corruption

UkraineAlert

May 16, 2019

Ukraine needs all the friends it can get. So why did it boot the American ambassador early?

By Mykola Vorobiov

Last week the Trump administration recalled US Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch two months earlier than expected. Various forces within Ukraine’s presidential administration, including the attorney general, had been calling for her head after she gave a speech that pointed out Ukraine’s lackluster commitment to reform on Poroshenko’s watch. The lack of an ambassador puts […]

Elections Political Reform

UkraineAlert

May 14, 2019

Ukraine’s most urgent need

By Peter Dickinson

Ukrainians have considerable experience of the hope that comes with new beginnings and the disillusionment that often follows. The country has lived through repeated false dawns over the past three decades, only for the same old bad habits to come creeping out of the shadows and reassert their debilitating grip on the nation. The arrival […]

Democratic Transitions Elections

UkraineAlert

May 14, 2019

Even if Ukraine’s reformers unify, so what?

By Melinda Haring

Five years after the Euromaidan street protests, Ukrainians are still waiting for transformative leaders and justice. On May 20, political newcomer Volodymyr Zelenskiy will be sworn in as president. But that won’t necessarily result in a significant change for the country: Ukraine’s next president is inexperienced and his links to oligarchs are troubling. Its parliament, […]

Civil Society Elections

UkraineAlert

May 13, 2019

Will Ukraine become a giant Moldova?

By James Brooke

Without a red-tape slashing revolution, Ukraine will become a big Moldova—a bedroom country for migrant workers building the dynamic economies of eastern Europe.

Migration Moldova

UkraineAlert

May 8, 2019

Zelenskyy’s first big test

By Basil Kalymon

A key issue has emerged in the post-election drama in Ukraine. In a disturbing interview given by Andrij Bohdan, lawyer, confidant, and political advisor to President-elect Volodymyr Zelenskiy, he reveals that he continues to act as a lawyer for oligarch Ihor Kolomoiskiy with regard to the nationalization of PrivatBank. This assertion, if accepted by the […]

Corruption Financial Regulation

UkraineAlert

May 8, 2019

Reality check

By Bohdan Nahaylo

Ukraine’s presidential election was a veritable political earthquake. The fault line between the old and the new, the real and the illusory, and pseudo-nationalism and grassroots patriotism, has been dramatically exposed. The old political establishment was shaken to its very foundations, and the strong tremors and shockwaves continue to be felt. The shifting political tectonic […]

Elections Nationalism

UkraineAlert

May 6, 2019

Why we can’t get enough of Ukraine

By Francis Fukuyama

The impact one can have on building institutions like the modern state, the rule of law, and democracy is limited. The area where it’s easiest is the third category, building democracy. The first two, building the modern state and building a real rule of law, are much harder, and those are the areas that have been […]

Corruption Democratic Transitions

UkraineAlert

May 6, 2019

The illusions of Putin’s Russia

By Anders Åslund

The best defense of the West against Putin’s authoritarian and kleptocratic regime is transparency, shining light on this anonymous wealth.

Corruption Financial Regulation

UkraineAlert

May 3, 2019

Children as a tool: how Russia militarizes kids in the Donbas and Crimea

By Iryna Matviyishyn

With an eye to the future, officials in the Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine are waging a campaign of “patriotic education” aimed at reaching the hearts and minds of those most susceptible to ideological persuasion: children. Russia has always used the militarization of public life to indoctrinate local populations and continues that practice today. Currently, thousands […]

Conflict Human Rights