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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

May 21, 2025

Putin aims to destroy Ukraine and has zero interest in a compromise peace

By
Peter Dickinson

Russia’s ongoing campaign to destroy Ukraine as a state and as a nation is taking place in front of the watching world and makes a complete mockery of US-led efforts to broker some kind of compromise peace, writes Peter Dickinson.

Conflict
Disinformation


UkraineAlert

May 20, 2025

US-Ukraine minerals deal creates potential for economic and security benefits

By
Svitlana Kovalchuk

The recently signed US-Ukrainian minerals deal places bilateral ties on a new footing and creates opportunities for long-term strategic partnership, writes Svitlana Kovalchuk.

Conflict
Defense Technologies


UkraineAlert

May 20, 2025

How to prevent Ukraine’s booming defense sector from fueling global insecurity

By
Vitaliy Goncharuk

With the Ukrainian defense sector experiencing years of unprecedented growth in response to Russia’s full-scale invasion, it is important to prevent Ukraine’s innovative military technologies from fueling a new wave of international instability, writes Vitaliy Goncharuk.

Conflict
Defense Industry


UkraineAlert

May 15, 2025

Russia’s aerial attacks on Ukrainian civilians must not go unpunished

By
Anastasiya Donets, Susan H. Farbstein 

Holding Russia legally accountable for the ongoing air offensive against Ukraine’s civilian population is particularly important as this form of total war looks set to make a return, write Anastasiya Donets and Susan H. Farbstein. 

Conflict
Defense Policy


UkraineAlert

May 15, 2025

Ukraine’s vibrant civil society wants to be heard during peace talks

By
Ana Lejava

While officials in Moscow, Washington, Brussels, and Kyiv discuss technicalities and potential concessions, members of Ukraine’s vibrant civil society are attempting to define the contours of a lasting and meaningful peace, writes Ana Lejava.

Civil Society
Conflict


UkraineAlert

May 13, 2025

How much longer will Putin be allowed to continue stalling for time?

By
Peter Dickinson

President Trump has made a legitimate effort to broker a generous peace, but the time has now come to acknowledge that Putin is not negotiating in good faith and will only respond to the language of strength, writes Peter Dickinson.

France
Germany


UkraineAlert

May 13, 2025

Drone superpower: Ukrainian wartime innovation offers lessons for NATO

By
David Kirichenko

Today’s Ukraine is now a drone superpower with an innovative domestic defense industry that can provide its NATO allies with important lessons in the realities of twenty-first century warfare, writes David Kirichenko.

Conflict
Defense Industry


UkraineAlert

May 8, 2025

Russia’s coming summer offensive could be deadliest of the entire war

By
Mykola Bielieskov

As the US-led peace initiative continues to falter, the unfolding summer campaigning season in Ukraine promises to be among the bloodiest of the entire war, writes Mykola Bielieskov.

Conflict
European Union


UkraineAlert

May 7, 2025

Putin’s parade cynically exploits WWII to justify his own criminal invasion

By
Peter Dickinson

Putin is expected to use this week’s Victory Day parade marking 80 years since the defeat of Hitler to legitimize his current invasion of Ukraine. But if anyone is guilty of echoing the crimes of the Nazis, it is Putin himself, writes Peter Dickinson.

Brazil
China


UkraineAlert

May 6, 2025

Putin is escalating the war in Ukraine. He will not stop until he is stopped.

By
Alyona Nevmerzhytska

Today, Ukrainians are paying a terrible price for the West’s reluctance to confront Russia. If Putin is not stopped in Ukraine, many other countries will also count the cost of this failure, writes Alyona Nevmerzhytska.

Conflict
European Union

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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.

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Content

UkraineAlert

Mar 12, 2018

Ukraine’s Six Teams of Reformers to Watch

By Aivaras Abromavičius

Ukraine has changed in recent years. But, as is often the case, it’s two steps forward, one step back. At numerous meetings with international partners and journalists, I’m often asked where the latest positive dynamic in government reforms is and which groups of reformers are likely to produce positive results. Having worked in the government […]

Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Mar 12, 2018

Poroshenko’s Last Chance

By Diane Francis

An Anti-Corruption Court is the capstone that will complete an infrastructure to eliminate Ukraine’s systemic corruption and to attract massive investments.President Petro Poroshenko’s current proposal misses the mark, and fails to meet the criteria stipulated by the International Monetary Fund and the Council of Europe’s Venice Commission. Under Poroshenko’s bill, international experts will play only […]

Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Mar 8, 2018

The Right to Protest, Extremism, and the State Order

By Victor Andrusiv

On Sunday, March 3, Ukraine’s police dispersed more than one hundred protesters and disbanded their tent camps outside of the Ukrainian parliament amid significant criticism. Several dozen tents had stood for more than four months, blocking a major thoroughfare in Kyiv, Ukraine. Behind the protests were former opposition leader Mikheil Saakashvili and former soldiers who […]

Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Mar 6, 2018

Torture in Eastern Ukraine—and What Comes After It

By Iuliia Mendel

Oleksiy Kanarskyy, a twenty-five-year old Ukrainian, never thought he would celebrate January 1 in freedom. His hopes had faded during three years of detention in the conflict zone in eastern Ukraine, after endless promises of a prisoners’ exchange between the Ukrainian government and Russian-backed separatists. But on December 27, 2017, the largest prisoner swap since […]

Russia Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Mar 5, 2018

Why Ukrainians Are So Upset about New Electricity Tariffs

By Anders Åslund

Energy tariffs are a serious concern in Ukraine. Before the 2014 Euromaidan, gas prices were too low and cost the government 8 percent of GDP in subsidies. Worse, most of that went to a few privileged gas traders. Low electricity tariffs left the owners of generation and distribution companies no incentive to invest. From 2014-17, […]

Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Mar 1, 2018

Ukraine Scores Major Win over Russia and Gazprom

By Timothy Ash

Ukraine received a useful fillip on February 28 when the Stockholm Court of Arbitration ruled in favor of the state gas supply and transit company, Naftogaz, and against its Russian counterpart, Gazprom, in a four-year dispute over gas transit. The court awarded Naftogaz $4.63 billion in damages, finding that Gazprom failed to pump agreed upon […]

Russia Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Mar 1, 2018

Inconvenient Facts: Putin’s War Is Killing Russian Speakers

By Taras Kuzio

Russia has downplayed its military support for its proxies in eastern Ukraine by portraying the conflict as a “civil war” between Russian and Ukrainian language speakers. Western media often mistakenly portray the war in eastern Ukraine as a cultural war between Ukrainian and Russian speakers, drawing on the deeply held stereotype of a country divided […]

Russia Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Feb 27, 2018

Rebel Radio: New Station Challenges Oligarchs’ Media Monopoly in Ukraine

By Peter Dickinson

“We do not feel any pressure from the government,” says Vitaly Sych, the chief editor of Ukraine’s most ambitious independent media holding. “Sometimes we have a dialogue with the authorities, but that is healthy. We recently published a lead article that was highly critical of Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko. He contacted me personally and we […]

Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Feb 27, 2018

Ukraine’s Unexpected Leaders

By Diane Francis

In the summer of 2013, Alex Ryabchyn completed his master’s degree at Sussex University in the United Kingdom, then moved back with his wife and daughter to teach at Donetsk National University in eastern Ukraine. That December, the Maidan erupted and he watched from afar with concern. Then in March 2014, after little green men […]

Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Feb 26, 2018

Why Boris Nemtsov Still Matters Today

By Alexandra Yatsyk

Three years ago, Boris Nemtsov, one of the top Russian politicians during the 1990s and a vocal dissident throughout Vladimir Putin’s long reign, was shot dead near the Kremlin in Moscow. The death of this talented, passionate, and charismatic patriot shocked liberal and progressive communities in Russia and abroad. Tragically, Nemtsov joins a long list […]

Russia Ukraine