UkraineAlert

UkraineAlert

UkraineAlert is a comprehensive online publication that provides regular news and analysis on developments in Ukraine’s politics, economy, civil society, and culture. UkraineAlert sources analysis and commentary from a wide-array of thought-leaders, politicians, experts, and activists from Ukraine and the global community. UkraineAlert has become a major publication in Ukraine’s news landscape and has established itself not only through its quality of content but also significant partnerships with English, Ukrainian, and Russian-language media through the country.

Stay Updated

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

The illusions of Putin’s Russia

UkraineAlert May 12, 2026

Ukrainian long-range drones are turning Russia’s size into a weakness

By Peter Dickinson

Ukraine is waging a strategic bombing campaign of deep strikes across the Russian Federation that aims to exploit Russia’s colossal size and transform it from a key strength into a fatal weakness, writes Peter Dickinson.
Conflict Defense Technologies
The illusions of Putin’s Russia

UkraineAlert May 1, 2026

Europe needs Ukraine as it looks to counter growing Russian threat

By Zahar Hryniv

More than a year since Trump returned to the White House, it is clear that Europe needs to develop its own strategic vision for the continent’s defense. It is equally apparent that Ukraine must be central to this vision, writes Zahar Hryniv.
Conflict Defense Industry
The illusions of Putin’s Russia

UkraineAlert Apr 30, 2026

Zelenskyy refuses Russian demands to surrender Ukraine’s vital fortress belt

By Marc Goedemans

Ukraine rejects Russian demands to withdraw from northern Donetsk province as part of a peace deal and insists the region’s fortress belt is absolutely indispensable for the defense of the country as a whole, writes Marc Goedemans.
Conflict Defense Policy

Latest analysis

UkraineAlert

Sep 8, 2022

Russia may not survive Putin’s disastrous decision to invade Ukraine

By Janusz Bugajski

The Russian Federation looks set to face growing threats from domestic separatist movements in the coming years as Vladimir Putin's disastrous decision to invade Ukraine serves as a catalyst for imperial collapse.

Civil Society Conflict

UkraineAlert

Sep 6, 2022

Europe can win Putin’s gas war but must learn Nord Stream lessons

By Anders Åslund

With Russia now dropping all pretense and openly declaring that it will not renew gas deliveries to the EU until sanctions are scrapped, it is vital to learn the lessons from Europe’s earlier refusal to recognize the Kremlin’s weaponization of energy exports.

Conflict Corruption

UkraineAlert

Sep 4, 2022

Rigged Russian referendums: Putin’s plan to annex occupied Ukraine

By Olga Aivazovska

Western leaders must clearly signal to the Kremlin that any attempt to stage fake referendums and annex Russian-occupied regions of Ukraine will result in increased sanctions, writes Olga Aivazovska.

Conflict Disinformation

UkraineAlert

Sep 2, 2022

Russia’s self-defeating invasion: Why Vladimir Putin has lost Ukraine forever

By Taras Kuzio

The Russian invasion of Ukraine aimed to extinguish Ukrainian statehood and return the country to the Kremlin orbit. Instead, the war unleashed by Putin has sparked an unprecedented wave of de-Russification.

Civil Society Conflict

UkraineAlert

Sep 1, 2022

Death of Mikhail Gorbachev highlights Europe’s lingering memory divide

By Peter Dickinson

The death of Mikhail Gorbachev has highlighted the memory divide between Western Europe and the countries of the former Eastern Bloc that also shapes contemporary attitudes toward Putin's imperial agenda.

Conflict Democratic Transitions

UkraineAlert

Sep 1, 2022

Flawed assumptions hamper Western response to Russia’s Ukraine War

By Glenn Chafetz, Richard D. Hooker, Jr.

The Western response to Russia's Ukraine invasion is being undermined by flawed assumptions over the danger of a possible nuclear escalation and the need to maintain a workable relationship with Russia.

Conflict European Union

UkraineAlert

Aug 31, 2022

Russia must be held accountable for committing genocide in Ukraine

By Danielle Johnson

Efforts to hold Russia accountable for genocide in Ukraine will involve war crimes trials but must also focus on the broader challenge of addressing Russia's historical sense of impunity, writes Danielle Johnson

Conflict Disinformation

UkraineAlert

Aug 30, 2022

The Ukrainian military must reorganize to defeat Russia

By Richard D. Hooker, Jr.

Ukraine has achieved military miracles to derail Russia's invasion plans but reorganization of the Ukrainian Armed Forces is necessary if the country is to be fully liberated from Russian occupation, writes Richard D. Hooker, Jr.

Conflict Defense Industry

UkraineAlert

Aug 30, 2022

Decolonizing Crimean history

By Oleksandra Gaidai

A new online educational initiative is aiming to decolonize Crimean history and challenge the problematic international tendency to view the lands of the former Soviet Union through a Russian prism.

Civil Society Conflict

UkraineAlert

Aug 25, 2022

Amnesty announces review as Ukraine report backlash continues

By Lillian Posner

Amnesty International has announced an independent review of a controversial report that accused the Ukrainian military of endangering civilians and was subsequently used by the Kremlin to justify war crimes.

Conflict Disinformation
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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
The illusions of Putin’s Russia

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
The illusions of Putin’s Russia

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
The illusions of Putin’s Russia

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

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

UkraineAlert

May 2, 2019

Time for Ukraine to compete with Russia

By Grigory Frolov

Showman Volodymyr Zelenskiy will soon be sworn in as president of Ukraine. Last month he crushed incumbent President Petro Poroshenko in a remarkable landslide. Zelenskiy’s victory was noteworthy in Ukraine, but it’s also making headlines across the former Soviet Union. While Zelenskiy is inexperienced and his policies aren’t well defined, he knows how to engage […]

European Union Inclusive Growth

UkraineAlert

May 2, 2019

Ukraine’s new language law rights historic wrongs

By Andrej Lushnycky

For centuries the Ukrainian language was relegated to the status of a “peasant language” by the foreign rulers of the lands that make up the country today and by foreign scholars in Europe and abroad who perpetuated this Russian imperial falsehood. More recently, after the disintegration of the Soviet Union, Ukraine inherited a Soviet political […]

Civil Society Nationalism

UkraineAlert

Apr 29, 2019

Vladimir Putin does Shakespeare

By Stephen Blank

Vladimir Putin’s newest display of talent is his excelling in theatrics. He recently elected to play Macbeth or Richard III. Having nothing left to offer Russia as the indices of immiseration pile up, Putin’s recourse to imperial theatrics has dramatically accelerated. But ultimately this performance, like those of his predecessors on stage and in reality, […]

Conflict Human Rights

UkraineAlert

Apr 26, 2019

What is wrong with the Ukrainian economy?

By Anders Åslund

Construction is booming in Kyiv, Ukraine, but not the rest of the economy. A major reason is that Ukrainians with some extra savings do not put their money into banks but buy additional apartments instead. Others keep their savings in cash. On average, Ukrainian MPs keep $700,000 at home. Those who have a lot of […]

Financial Regulation Fiscal and Structural Reform

UkraineAlert

Apr 25, 2019

10 ways the west should engage with Ukraine after 2019 elections

By Chatham House

Five years after the annexation of Crimea and the instigation of conflict in the Donbas, the reasons for continued sanctions on Russia have not gone away. Crimea is still occupied. War grinds on in the Donbas. Ukraine held presidential elections this spring and will hold parliamentary elections in the fall. Whatever the results, events in […]

Defense Policy Disinformation

UkraineAlert

Apr 25, 2019

What Zelenskiy’s victory means for Ukraine

By David J. Kramer

The temptation in Kyiv and elsewhere is to look past Sunday’s overwhelming victory by upstart Volodymyr Zelenskiy over incumbent Petro Poroshenko and try to divine what it means for Ukraine. This piece will yield to that temptation—but after acknowledging the importance of what happened Sunday and throughout the election campaign. Free and fair elections in […]

Democratic Transitions Elections

UkraineAlert

Apr 24, 2019

How history will judge Poroshenko

By Alexander J. Motyl

The majority of Ukraine’s voters and pundits detest President Petro Poroshenko who lost his chance at a second term on April 21. However, history will prove them wrong and judge him as Ukraine’s most successful leader. Indeed, Poroshenko will go down in the annals as the man who consolidated Ukraine’s state, nation, democracy, and the […]

Democratic Transitions Elections

UkraineAlert

Apr 23, 2019

Why Poroshenko lost

By Dennis Soltys

On April 21, television star Volodymyr Zelenskiy crushed incumbent president Petro Poroshenko in the second round of Ukraine’s presidential election. Even though Zelenskiy has never held elected office, voters were so tired of corruption and economic stagnation that they were willing to take a risk. Zelenskiy ran an unusual campaign. He made few programmatic promises […]

Democratic Transitions Elections
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