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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

Ukraine’s Veterans Are a Powerful Constituency. Who Will Control Them?

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

Ukraine’s Veterans Are a Powerful Constituency. Who Will Control Them?

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

Ukraine’s Veterans Are a Powerful Constituency. Who Will Control Them?

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

Feb 14, 2022

Russia may dodge sanctions by using Putin proxies to invade Ukraine

By
Pavlo Kukhta, Viktoria Podhorna, Mykyta Poturaev, Yehor Chernev

With Russia facing the possibility of crushing sanctions over the threatened invasion of Ukraine, Putin may prefer to deploy hybrid forces made up of regular Russian troops and mercenaries posing as Ukrainian separatists.

Conflict
Disinformation


UkraineAlert

Feb 11, 2022

Free trade and drones: Turkey and Ukraine strengthen strategic ties

By
Christopher Isajiw

Ukraine’s President Zelenskyy welcomed Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to Kyiv in early February for a visit that underlined the deepening strategic partnership between the two Black Sea nations.

Conflict
Defense Industry


UkraineAlert

Feb 11, 2022

Ukraine Crisis: Deterring Putin is expensive but much cheaper than war

By
Andriy Zagorodnyuk

Deterring Putin from launching a full-scale invasion of Ukraine is an expensive business, but it is infinitely cheaper than the price the international community will have to pay if Russia unleashes a major European war.

Conflict
Economic Sanctions


UkraineAlert

Feb 10, 2022

Black Sea blockade: Ukraine accuses Russia of major maritime escalation

By
Peter Dickinson

While the world watches Ukraine’s land borders with Russia and Belarus for signs of Putin’s threatened full-scale invasion, Moscow may be in the process of opening a maritime front with a Black Sea blockade.

Economic Sanctions
Economy & Business


UkraineAlert

Feb 10, 2022

Defending Ukraine on the energy front

By
Olga Bielkova

The idea that we are stronger together has long been a guiding principle in Ukraine-EU relations. Bolstering our shared defenses against Russian aggression on the energy front is an important step towards this vision.

Energy & Environment
Energy Markets & Governance


UkraineAlert

Feb 8, 2022

With Putin poised to invade, Zelenskyy must prioritize Ukrainian unity

By
Kira Rudik

With Russian troops poised to launch a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, it is time for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to put personal rivalries to one side and unite the country’s political forces, says Kira Rudik.

Conflict
Corruption


UkraineAlert

Feb 8, 2022

Ukraine prepares to unplug from Russian electricity amid invasion fears

By
Aura Sabadus

Amid mounting fears of a full-scale Russian invasion, Ukraine remains determined to proceed with a planned trial disconnection from the Russian electricity grid in order to progress towards European energy integration.

Conflict
Energy Markets & Governance


UkraineAlert

Feb 7, 2022

Still not too late for Germany to honor its commitment to Ukraine

By
Eugene Czolij

Germany says a sense of “historical responsibility” over Nazi crimes prevents Berlin from adopting a firmer stand against Russia. Many in Ukraine ask why this logic does not also apply to the millions of Ukrainian WWII victims.

Conflict
Economic Sanctions


UkraineAlert

Feb 7, 2022

US delegation: America stands with Ukraine against Russian threat

By
Eurasia Center

The Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center organized a delegation to visit Kyiv on January 30-February 1 planned around a major public event organized in concert with Yalta European Strategy and the Victor Pinchuk Foundation, a partner of the Eurasia Center.

Conflict
European Union


UkraineAlert

Feb 4, 2022

Russia demands security guarantees but what Putin really wants is Ukraine

By
Iulian Romanyshyn

Russian President Vladimir Putin claims to seek security guarantees and an end to NATO expansion but the crisis he has recently engineered is really all about reasserting Kremlin control over Ukraine, says Iulian Romanyshyn.

Conflict
Democratic Transitions

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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

Ukraine’s Veterans Are a Powerful Constituency. Who Will Control Them?

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

Ukraine’s Veterans Are a Powerful Constituency. Who Will Control Them?

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

Ukraine’s Veterans Are a Powerful Constituency. Who Will Control Them?

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

Jun 7, 2018

Ukraine’s Veterans Are a Powerful Constituency. Who Will Control Them?

By Lauren Van Metre

On February 27, Ukraine’s parliament voted to establish a new Ministry for Veterans, pending the approval of the Cabinet of Ministers. The parliament has been active on veterans’ issues, adopting more than thirty laws in the last three years to provide social services and protections. But more than twenty ministries and government departments handle veterans’ […]

NATO
Security & Defense

UkraineAlert

Jun 6, 2018

Ukraine’s Devastating Problem Is Only Getting Worse

By Diane Francis

Political disaffection is not unique to Ukraine, but the lack of optimism and new access to European jobs foretells more migration.

Macroeconomics
Migration

UkraineAlert

Jun 4, 2018

Actually, the West’s Anticorruption Policy Is Spot On

By Daria Kaleniuk

In a recent Foreign Affairs column, Adrian Karatnycky and Alexander J. Motyl argue that the West’s anticorruption policies are failing in Ukraine. This is false. The West’s anticorruption policies are spot on, and the West needs to dig in and push even harder. Karatnycky and Motyl are right that Ukraine has changed for the better […]

Ukraine

UkraineAlert

May 31, 2018

Putin’s Bridge to Nowhere

By Askold Krushelnycky

Russia’s war in Ukraine has entered its fifth year. Skirmishes and killings continue every week but have faded from the headlines—perhaps because they have reached “an acceptable level of violence.” I was a teenager when I first heard that chilling term uttered by a British politician in 1971 referring to the low intensity war in […]

Russia
Ukraine

UkraineAlert

May 31, 2018

How Ukraine Can Seize the Moral High Ground in the Donbas

By Lauren Van Metre

Fighting in eastern Ukraine last week was the worst it’s been this year. The uptick in violence coincides with Ukraine’s transition of the command of the war from its security forces to its armed forces, which is part of the implementation of Ukraine’s new law on reintegration. While much of the new law has not […]

Russia
Ukraine

UkraineAlert

May 30, 2018

Q&A: “Dead” Russian Journalist Arkady Babchenko Is Alive and Well. Does Faking His Murder Help or Hinder Ukraine’s Credibility?

By Melinda Haring

On May 29, the media reported that Russian journalist and Putin critic Arkady Babchenko had been assassinated in Kyiv. He reportedly died in an ambulance on the way to the hospital. On May 30, Babchenko appeared at a press conference, alongside the head of the Ukrainan Security Service (SBU) Vasily Gritsak and Prosecutor General Yuriy […]

Russia
Ukraine

UkraineAlert

May 29, 2018

Richard Pipes: An Appreciation

By Stephen Blank

I was not a student of the late Richard Pipes, and I only met him once briefly, so I cannot claim any special relationship or unique insight into his personality and character. Nevertheless, he was and remains a model for historians of Russia and those who aspire to understand Russia as it really is.

Russia
Ukraine

UkraineAlert

May 29, 2018

Why I’m Still Doing Business in Ukraine

By Paul Niland

Ukraine is a challenging and confusing place to do business. At the same time, it’s also exciting and changing. I’ve been doing business in Ukraine for fifteen years, and while Ukraine has a bad reputation for international business, it deserves a second look.

Ukraine

UkraineAlert

May 29, 2018

Time to Cut Out the Middlemen in Ukraine Gas Trade

By Diane Francis

Four years after Ukrainians protested in the streets against jaw-dropping corruption, the most odious scheme of all—the corrupt natural gas market—continues to siphon billions from Ukraine. These proceeds underwrite a sophisticated bribery scheme in Russia and Ukraine, and more recently help subsidize Russia’s war and occupation against Ukraine. The heist was devised years ago by […]

Russia
Ukraine

UkraineAlert

May 25, 2018

Russian Armed Forces Downed Civilian Airline Four Years Ago, Investigators Conclude

By Michael Bociurkiw

The noose is finally closing on the people and structures behind the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17. Almost four years after the Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur-bound flight was shot down by a BUK missile over Ukraine, a clearer picture is emerging on the origin of the missile, its route to the firing zone in […]

Russia
Ukraine
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