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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

Mar 25, 2022

Ukraine’s southern capital Odesa prepares to repel Russian invasion

By
Oleksiy Goncharenko

Vladimir Putin must take Odesa if he wishes to subjugate the whole of Ukraine but the predominantly Russian-speaking Black Sea port city is in defiant mood amid preparations to repel the Russian invaders.

Conflict
Disinformation


UkraineAlert

Mar 23, 2022

Vladimir Putin’s Ukraine War can end in only two ways: Genocide or defeat

By
Peter Dickinson

Vladimir Putin has repeatedly stated that he regards Ukrainians as Russians and does not recognize Ukraine’s right to exist. Unless he is defeated, his Ukraine invasion may deteriorate into a genocide in the heart of Europe.

Conflict
Disinformation


UkraineAlert

Mar 21, 2022

Vladimir Putin’s criminal war has killed the myth of Russian-Ukrainian unity

By
Alexander Khrebet

The Russian invasion of Ukraine was meant to secure Vladimir Putin’s place in history and reunify what Moscow views as the divided lands of historic Russia. Instead, it has killed the myth of Russian-Ukrainian unity.

Conflict
Disinformation


UkraineAlert

Mar 21, 2022

Fear of provoking Putin is leading the Western world toward disaster

By
Ilya Timtchenko

Western policy toward Russia has long been shaped by fear of provoking Vladimir Putin but this caution has only served to encourage further acts of Russian aggression culminating in the current war in Ukraine.

Conflict
European Union


UkraineAlert

Mar 20, 2022

Bold Ukrainians defy Putin’s invasion and join European electricity grid

By
Aura Sabadus

Despite the existential challenges posed by Russia’s full-scale invasion of the country, Ukraine has managed in recent weeks to complete the country’s connection to the European electricity grid.

Conflict
Energy & Environment


UkraineAlert

Mar 19, 2022

Putin drank the Kremlin Kool-Aid

By
Taras Kuzio

Russian President Vladimir Putin drank the Kremlin Kool-Aid and seems to have sincerely believed his disastrous Ukraine war would be an imperial triumph with minimal costs on the domestic and international fronts.

Conflict
Disinformation


UkraineAlert

Mar 18, 2022

Why Russia’s anti-war movement matters

By
Dylan Myles-Primakoff

While opinion polls consistently indicate strong Russian public support for Putin’s Ukraine War, the country’s anti-war movement also matters and may actually be larger than it at first appears.

Civil Society
Conflict


UkraineAlert

Mar 17, 2022

Vladimir Putin’s war to crush Ukraine is part of a long Kremlin tradition

By
Kristina Hook

Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine has stunned the world with its criminal brutality but the Russian invasion is actually very much in line with a long tradition of Kremlin policies aimed at crushing Ukraine.

Conflict
Disinformation


UkraineAlert

Mar 17, 2022

The EU needs Ukraine

By
Paul Grod

The European Union needs to embrace Ukraine’s membership aspirations in order to demonstrate its own commitment to European values and its opposition to Vladimir Putin’s authoritarian alternative.

Civil Society
Conflict


UkraineAlert

Mar 16, 2022

Vladimir Putin has almost no chance of successfully occupying Ukraine

By
Ben Connable

Vladimir Putin is throwing Russia’s full military might into the invasion of Ukraine but any attempt to occupy large parts of the country is almost certainly doomed to fail.

Conflict
Russia

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Content

UkraineAlert

Nov 6, 2018

Ukraine’s Language Bill Misses the Point

By Josh Cohen

Media outlets everywhere face challenges ranging from shrinking advertising budgets to getting consumers to pay for content. In Ukraine, however, they may soon face a different kind of challenge. A draft law currently being considered by Ukraine’s parliament would require all media published in other languages to produce an identical Ukrainian version both online and […]

Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Nov 6, 2018

Russia Shows its Military Might in the Black Sea and Beyond

By Ruslan Minich

Since illegally annexing Crimea in 2014, Russia has drastically increased its military presence in the Black Sea region. The Kremlin’s dominance may be temporary given NATO’s greater capacities, but so far, NATO’s response has been limited. “Russia has practically covered all of the Black Sea region,” says Hryhorii Perepelytsia, the head of the Kyiv-based Foreign […]

Russia
Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Nov 6, 2018

Why Is the Sea of Azov So Important?

By Stephen Blank

Having illegally annexed Crimea in 2014, Moscow lost no time in seizing Ukrainian energy assets in and around the region. The Kremlin is now conducting another experiment in economic and military operations, but this one has profound implications beyond Ukraine. Before the seizure of Crimea, both Ukraine and Russia agreed to regard the Sea of […]

Russia
Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Nov 2, 2018

Making Sense of Russia’s New Draconian Sanctions on Ukraine

By Anders Åslund

On November 1, the Russian government imposed severe economic sanctions on 322 Ukrainian individuals and 68 Ukrainian companies. These are the most extensive sanctions imposed by any country in the tit-for-tat confrontation between Russia and Western countries over Ukraine. Curiously, these sanctions are explicitly only economic, declaring that any assets on the territory of the […]

Russia
Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Nov 1, 2018

Russia Understands Ukraine’s Geopolitical Importance but Does the West?

By Peter Dickinson

As Ukraine prepares to mark five years since the start of the country’s Euromaidan protests, the repercussions continue to reverberate across the globe. What began as an ordinary protest movement soon morphed into a revolution that sparked a Russian invasion and ushered in a new Cold War. Without the Euromaidan, Russia and the West would […]

Russia
Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Nov 1, 2018

Ukrainian Populists Still Think They Can Be Pro-EU but Anti-IMF. They’re Wrong.

By Taras Kuzio

Ukrainian voters have long believed that in her drive for power, long-time politician Yulia Tymoshenko will do and say anything. This is not unusual for populists who routinely make promises that cannot be met and are flexible with the truth. That characteristic has been on display since Tymoshenko announced her intention to run for the […]

Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Oct 31, 2018

Georgia, Where Everything Old Is Maybe New Again?

By Luis Navarro

On October 28, Georgians went to the polls to elect their fifth president, possibly for the last time. Neither candidate, both former foreign ministers, won outright. An unprecedented run-off is slated for December 2.    The United National Movement (UNM) presidential candidate Grigol Vashadze achieved an unexpectedly strong showing (37.7 percent) against the ruling Georgian […]

Russia
The Caucasus

UkraineAlert

Oct 30, 2018

10 Names Russia Hopes You’ll Never Know

By Vitalii Rybak

Since Russia annexed Crimea in 2014, Moscow and its proxies have put dozens of Ukrainian and Crimean Tatar political prisoners behind bars. However, there are many other people in Russian prisons who have been incarcerated for their unwillingness to bow down to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s regime. The fabrication of these cases has been refined […]

Russia
Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Oct 30, 2018

Five ways to entice Ukrainians to come home

By Andy Hunder

Approximately five million Ukrainians, roughly 25 percent of the country’s economically active population, work abroad.

Macroeconomics
Migration

UkraineAlert

Oct 29, 2018

How Ukraine’s Presidential Race Is Shaping Up

By Mykola Vorobiov

Ukraine’s presidential race is in full swing, even though the official campaign period has not yet begun. At this point, incumbent President Petro Poroshenko and former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko may make the second round; no candidate is expected to take 50 percent in the first round. If elections were held now, Tymoshenko would take […]

Ukraine