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.

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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

Reality check

UkraineAlert Sep 3, 2026

Putin cannot defeat NATO but he could divide and discredit the alliance

By Peter Dickinson

If Russian President Vladimir Putin decides to attack NATO, his goal will be to divide and discredit the alliance rather than actually defeating it, writes Peter Dickinson.
Conflict Defense Policy
Reality check

UkraineAlert Aug 27, 2026

Ukrainians are not superheroes with endless powers of resilience

By Lauren Van Metre, Elena Davlikanova

By celebrating Ukrainian resilience as an almost superhuman quality, the international community risks obscuring the much less glamorous reality that Ukrainians are actually ordinary people who have endured extraordinary violence for far too long, write Lauren Van Metre and Elena Davlikanova.
Civil Society Conflict
Reality check

UkraineAlert Aug 25, 2026

A cultural renaissance is reshaping national identity in wartime Ukraine

By Davis Richardson

Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine is fueling a defiant cultural outpouring that is redefining and strengthening Ukrainian national identity in ways that challenge centuries of Kremlin imperialism, writes Davis Richardson.
Civil Society Conflict

Latest analysis

UkraineAlert

Aug 13, 2020

Ukraine must address the legal ambiguity enabling Putin’s not-so-secret war

By Wayne Jordash

Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine is one of the world's worst-kept secrets, but a failure to end the legal ambiguity shrouding Russia's role in the ongoing conflict makes progress towards peace impossible.

Conflict Disinformation

UkraineAlert

Aug 11, 2020

Zelenskyy’s old new faces

By Adrian Karatnycky

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy came to power in 2019 promising a new era in Ukrainian politics but the recent appointment of figures from the discredited past raises questions about this fresh start.

Democratic Transitions Political Reform

UkraineAlert

Aug 6, 2020

Can new legislation revive Ukraine’s defense reforms?

By Serhiy Piontkovsky

Ukraine's defense industry has become a major source of state spending since the onset of hostilities with Russia in 2014, but corruption allegations have been a problem. Can new legislation revive reform efforts?

Defense Policy Defense Technologies

UkraineAlert

Aug 4, 2020

From Russian war to European opportunity: Reinventing eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region

By Oleksii Reznikov

Putin has place eastern Ukraine's Donbas region at the heart of his "Russian World" mythology, but in reality the region has a cosmopolitan heritage that could help to inspire a new era of European investment.

Conflict Economy & Business

UkraineAlert

Aug 3, 2020

How to overcome Ukraine’s IT industry brain drain

By Bill Brown

Ukraine’s booming IT industry is fueling the country's economic growth. The future of the sector depends on creating a professional climate that will convince talented young Ukrainian IT professionals to stay.

Entrepreneurship Internet

UkraineAlert

Aug 3, 2020

For Ukraine, endless Putin means endless hybrid war

By Mark Temnycky

Russian President Vladimir Putin's recent constitutional amendments will allow him to extend his reign until 2036. This undermines faint hopes for an end to the six-year Russo-Ukrainian War.

Conflict Defense Policy

UkraineAlert

Aug 1, 2020

Kyiv names street in honor of journalist who exposed Stalin’s Ukrainian genocide

By Peter Dickinson

Kyiv City Council has confirmed plans to name a street in the Ukrainian capital in honor of British journalist Gareth Jones, who first brought news of Stalin's 1933 Ukrainian genocide to international audiences.

Disinformation Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Jul 30, 2020

The coronavirus crisis and statelessness in Ukraine

By Andrew D’Anieri

For the estimated 35,000 stateless people living in Ukraine, access to even the most basic resources like food, medicine, and hygienic products, has been all but cut off due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Coronavirus Human Rights

UkraineAlert

Jul 29, 2020

Hard political realities threaten Ukraine’s soft power ambitions

By Marina Pesenti

The Ukrainian Institute was established in 2018 in order to make the most of the country's untapped soft power potential, but this cultural diplomacy initiative faces numerous political and bureaucratic obstacles.

Civil Society Politics & Diplomacy

UkraineAlert

Jul 28, 2020

Zelenskyy’s bad economics: Inflation and devaluation will not help Ukraine grow

By Anders Åslund

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s policymakers are causing concern by flirting with the dangerous idea that high inflation and substantial currency devaluation can boost economic growth.

Democratic Transitions Economy & Business
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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
Reality check

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
Reality check

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
Reality check

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 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

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
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