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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

Why Is Ukraine Giving Fugitive Oligarch Dmytro Firtash a $1 Billion Windfall?

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

Why Is Ukraine Giving Fugitive Oligarch Dmytro Firtash a $1 Billion Windfall?

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

Why Is Ukraine Giving Fugitive Oligarch Dmytro Firtash a $1 Billion Windfall?

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 16, 2022

Ukrainian victory can deal a decisive blow to Russian imperialism

By
Danylo Lubkivsky

Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine is an attempt to drag the world back to an era of imperial aggression. The best way to make sure he fails is to provide Ukraine with the arms and financial support it needs to win the war.

Conflict
Democratic Transitions


UkraineAlert

Nov 14, 2022

Odesa rejects Catherine the Great as Putin’s invasion makes Russia toxic

By
Oleksiy Goncharenko

Work is underway to dismantle a controversial monument to Russian Empress Catherine the Great in Ukrainian Black Sea port city Odesa as Vladimir Putin’s invasion forces Ukrainians to rethink historic ties with Russia.

Civil Society
Conflict


UkraineAlert

Nov 14, 2022

Ukraine needs urgent help to counter Putin’s energy infrastructure attacks

By
Aura Sabadus

Ukraine urgently needs international support in order to counter Moscow’s campaign of airstrikes against the country’s energy infrastructure and prevent Putin from freezing Ukrainians into submission this winter.

Conflict
European Union


UkraineAlert

Nov 10, 2022

US national interests are best served by stopping Vladimir Putin in Ukraine

By
Steven Pifer

As Ukraine defends itself against a full-scale Russian invasion, continued American support is not only the morally correct position but also in the national interests of the United States, writes Steven Pifer.

Conflict
Financial Sanctions and Economic Coercion


UkraineAlert

Nov 10, 2022

Battle of Kherson: Russian retreat confirms Putin is losing the war

By
Andriy Zagorodnyuk

The war is still far from over, but Ukraine’s victory in the Battle of Kherson may eventually come to be seen as one of the key turning points in the defeat of Vladimir Putin’s invasion, writes Andriy Zagorodnyuk.

Conflict
Freedom and Prosperity


UkraineAlert

Nov 9, 2022

Putin suffers humiliating defeat as Russia announces Kherson retreat

By
Peter Dickinson

Russia’s retreat from Kherson is a turning point in the invasion of Ukraine and a personal humiliation for Vladimir Putin just weeks after he declared that the city had joined the Russian Federation “forever.”

Conflict
Human Rights


UkraineAlert

Nov 8, 2022

NATO, Nazis, Satanists: Putin is running out of excuses for his imperial war

By
Peter Dickinson

Vladimir Putin has blamed his invasion on everything from NATO expansion to Nazis and Satanists. In reality, he is waging an old-fashioned war of imperial expansion with the end goal of extinguishing Ukrainian statehood.

Conflict
Disinformation


UkraineAlert

Nov 7, 2022

The international community must prepare for a post-Putin Russia

By
Francis M. O’Donnell

With little hope of a meaningful settlement as long as Vladimir Putin remains in power, the international community should seek pathways to a lasting peace with a future post-Putin Russia, writes Francis O’Donnell.

Civil Society
Conflict


UkraineAlert

Nov 3, 2022

Will next week’s midterm elections impact US support for Ukraine?

By
Peter Dickinson

US backing for Ukraine has been crucial for the country’s fight back against Putin’s invasion but the campaign leading up to next week’s US midterm elections suggests American support cannot be taken for granted.

Conflict
Economy & Business


UkraineAlert

Nov 3, 2022

Russia hopes a winter wave of Ukrainian refugees will divide Europe

By
Kristen Taylor

Russia’s campaign of airstrikes against Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure aims to spark a humanitarian crisis and fuel a new winter season refugee wave that Moscow hopes will undermine European support for Ukraine.

Conflict
European Union

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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

Why Is Ukraine Giving Fugitive Oligarch Dmytro Firtash a $1 Billion Windfall?

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

Why Is Ukraine Giving Fugitive Oligarch Dmytro Firtash a $1 Billion Windfall?

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

Why Is Ukraine Giving Fugitive Oligarch Dmytro Firtash a $1 Billion Windfall?

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

Jul 26, 2018

Why Is Ukraine Giving Fugitive Oligarch Dmytro Firtash a $1 Billion Windfall?

By Oleksandr Kharchenko

Editor’s note: On July 27, it was announced that implementation of the gas transportation system code has been delayed until October 1. The problems that Kharchenko outlines below with the new code still apply.  Christmas comes early this year for Ukrainian oligarch Dmytro Firtash. On August 1, the tycoon may pocket about $1 billion through […]

Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Jul 26, 2018

How to Make Disappointed Ukrainians Believe Again

By Elena Tribushnaya

This month, the Ukrainian magazine Novoye Vremya interviewed fifty experts to assess President Petro Poroshenko’s achievements after four years. The result was a score of just six out of twelve.

Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Jul 26, 2018

Why Is Ukraine Still So Poor?

By Basil Kalymon and Oleh Havrylyshyn

Ukraine should have been a prosperous, middle-income country by now. Instead, it is one of the poorest in Europe. Ukrainians are only slightly richer than Moldovans. Since Ukraine’s independence, we, as members of the diaspora, have had a keen interest in the country’s development. With the disintegration of the Soviet Union, there were great expectations […]

Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Jul 24, 2018

Drones, Video Cameras, and Online Searches: How One Team Catches Ukraine’s Crooks

By Josh Cohen

Exposing corrupt Ukrainian judges and prosecutors might sound dangerous, but for Kate Butko, it’s nothing compared to what she’s previously dealt with. Butko runs PROSUD, an eleven-person project founded in 2016 by activists from the Automaidan, an anticorruption nongovernmental organization that organized car owners during the Euromaidan. Funded by the National Endowment for Democracy and […]

UkraineAlert

Jul 24, 2018

Ukrainians Want New Leaders. Here’s How They Can Bring in Fresh Faces

By Brian Mefford

It’s no surprise that public opinion polls show that Ukrainians are largely disappointed with the same old faces and choices in politics. The candidates expected to run in the 2019 presidential election aren’t new. Out of frustration with the unaccountability of the current parliament, there was a big push this spring to switch to an […]

Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Jul 24, 2018

What Do the Brussels and Helsinki Summits Mean for Ukraine?

By Stephen Blank

Before the NATO summit in Brussels and the Trump-Putin summit in Helsinki, many observers were apprehensive about Ukraine’s prospects at these events. As it turned out, in Brussels, NATO strongly supported Ukraine’s sovereignty and integrity. The alliance committed to further development of the bilateral partnership, encouraged Ukraine to make the best use of its opportunities […]

NATO
Russia

UkraineAlert

Jul 23, 2018

Russia has no place in the OSCE special monitoring mission in Ukraine

By Paul Niland

It will be difficult to get some other OSCE member countries, allies of Russia, to accept that unanimity minus one should now be applied in Ukraine. But at the very least, this conversation should be opened.

OSCE
Russia

UkraineAlert

Jul 19, 2018

Are the EU and NATO Serious about Bringing Peace to Ukraine? You Wouldn’t Know It from Their Language.

By Roman Sohn and Ariana Gic

Two events that took place in Brussels this month—the NATO summit and the EU-Ukraine summit—have once again brought attention to the Western position on Russia’s unlawful war on Ukraine. Although very supportive of Ukraine, the final declarations of both summits fail to use clear language recognizing Russia’s responsibility for its ongoing multi-vector war on Ukraine.

Russia
Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Jul 19, 2018

Q&A: What Should Trump Read? A Remedial Russia Reading List

By Melinda Haring

On July 16, as US President Donald Trump met with Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, Trump revealed just how little he knows about modern Russia or its leader. While US intelligence agencies have said the Russians interfered in the 2016 presidential election, Trump shocked the world by siding with Putin, who denied everything. “I don’t see […]

Russia
Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Jul 18, 2018

Not a Good Day for Ukraine

By Josh Cohen

Ukraine tries to project a proud image of a Western country with enormous potential held back by Russia, which is absolutely true, but it’s also true that it often holds itself back.    Take yesterday as an example. It was not a good day for Ukraine. A peaceful demonstration in Kyiv meant to highlight the […]

Russia
Ukraine
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