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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 6, 2022

Putin’s Ukraine War: Russian oligarchs must face tougher sanctions

By
Diane Francis

Sanctions against Russian oligarchs are starting to work and have already caused some to speak out against Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. Their influence on the Kremlin is key and pressure on them must now continue.


Conflict


Economy & Business


UkraineAlert

Mar 6, 2022

Why Vladimir Putin is losing the information war to Ukraine

By
Anders Åslund

Vladimir Putin has long enjoyed a reputation as a master of disinformation, but the Russian ruler is now clearly losing the global information war that is being waged alongside his invasion of Ukraine.


Civil Society


Conflict


UkraineAlert

Mar 4, 2022

Sanctioning Putin’s Ukraine War: Time to cut academic ties with Russia?

By
Richard L. Hudson

As the West imposes crushing sanctions on Russia over Vladimir Putin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, governments must also address the complex issue of academic cooperation with Russian universities.


Conflict


Education


UkraineAlert

Mar 3, 2022

Inside Vladimir Putin’s criminal plan to purge and partition Ukraine

By
Taras Kuzio

Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine has raised the chilling prospect of a brutal occupation including a purge of pro-Ukrainian and pro-Western elements of the civilian population and possible annexations of Ukrainian land.


Conflict


Disinformation


UkraineAlert

Mar 2, 2022

Vladimir Putin’s Ukraine War is a blueprint for genocide

By
Peter Dickinson

Putin has convinced millions of Russians that Ukraine is not a country and Ukrainians are really Russians. This has set the stage for mass atrocities in the country as the Russian invasion runs into the reality of a hostile Ukraine.


Conflict


Disinformation


UkraineAlert

Mar 1, 2022

New crowdsourcing campaign can help save Ukraine

By
Petr Tůma

A new crowdsourcing initiative aims to make the most of the Czech Republic's extensive stocks of Soviet-era weapons in order to bolster Ukraine's ability to defend itself against Vladimir Putin's Russian invasion.


Central Europe


Civil Society


UkraineAlert

Feb 28, 2022

Putin has fatally underestimated Ukrainians

By
Inna Sovsun

Vladimir Putin made a grave miscalculation when he invaded Ukraine. The Russian ruler hoped to decapitate the Ukrainian state and install a new regime, but is now at war with the entire 40 million Ukrainian nation.


Civil Society


Conflict


UkraineAlert

Feb 27, 2022

Ukraine War: Vladimir Putin has gambled everything and lost

By
Alexander Motyl

Putin has gambled and lost. Ukrainians will suffer terribly from his criminal invasion, but they will survive and emerge as a strong, modern nation. Putin faces a far more uncertain future following this senseless war.


Conflict


Democratic Transitions


UkraineAlert

Feb 26, 2022

Ukrainians are wondering: Where is the West?

By
Natalie Jaresko

A former finance minister of Ukraine gives an impassioned plea for more assistance to her country as it is under assault from Russia.


Conflict


Europe & Eurasia


UkraineAlert

Feb 24, 2022

What Ukraine needs now

By
Aleksander Kwaśniewski, Kersti Kaljulaid, Carl Bildt, Stéphane Fouks, Wolfgang Ischinger, Victor Pinchuk, Anders Fogh Rasmussen

Russia has invaded Ukraine. Far from shrinking away, the EU should work to further integrate Ukraine and offer it a membership perspective.


Conflict


Eurozone

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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

Sep 5, 2018

Mass detention of journalists exposes emerging shifts in Belarus

By Maxim Eristavi

The crackdown is the product of a transitioning Belarus, in which the forces of modernization are clashing with efforts to slow down or even halt the changes.

Belarus

UkraineAlert

Aug 27, 2018

Why John McCain Scared Putin

By Stephen B. Nix

Many accolades will be written about Senator John McCain this week and deservedly so. He was a consistent champion for democracy and human rights throughout the world, and a man who always stood by his principles. In his role as chairman of the International Republican Institute (IRI), McCain was considered a champion, particularly in the […]

Russia Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Aug 20, 2018

Ukraine’s Political Season Is about to Begin. Here’s What You Need to Know.

By Taras Berezovets

The hot summer of 2018 has been unusually calm in Ukraine, where in the absence of other news, a scandal or a crisis catches the media spotlight. This is a stark contrast to 2009, when the Ukrainian presidential campaign was in full swing, which on February 7, 2010, ended in victory for Viktor Yanukovych. In […]

Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Aug 16, 2018

How One Family Is Reviving Ukraine’s Pre-Soviet Tradition of Philanthropy

By Lauren Van Metre

Since the Euromaidan, we have seen extraordinary acts of volunteerism by Ukrainians. In the initial days of Russia’s invasion, citizen volunteers fought on the Donbas front to shore up the Ukrainian Army, which was on the verge of collapse. These citizen soldiers experienced high casualty rates. Volunteers organized supplies for the war and served as […]

Russia Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Aug 15, 2018

How Corruption Actually Works in Ukraine

By Melinda Haring

It’s standard fare in any article about Ukraine to mention the country’s enormous, overwhelming, and everlasting corruption problem. It’s also incredibly boring, because hardly anyone has examples or knows how it actually works. In April, I sat down over coffee and sweets in Kyiv with investigative journalist Oleksa Shalayskiy, editor-in-chief of Nashi Groshi (Our Money), who […]

Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Aug 15, 2018

The Last Missing Piece to Make Ukraine Truly Independent

By Kateryna Kruk

One of the biggest differences between Eastern and Western Europe is the role of the church. On paper, they are separate, but in Eastern Europe, tradition trumps the law and the influence of the church is immense. In Ukraine, the church is the most trusted institution, which is a good thing, but the fact that […]

Europe & Eurasia Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Aug 15, 2018

Good News: IMF to Return to Kyiv in September

By Timothy Ash

Last week Ukraine’s finances didn’t look so promising and a fall fiscal crisis was entirely possible. Many worried that Ukraine wouldn’t satisfy the International Monetary Fund’s three main demands in time to receive a $1.9 billion tranche before annual budget debates begin. The IMF had been demanding an Anticorruption Court, market prices on gas for […]

Europe & Eurasia Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Aug 14, 2018

Ukraine Passes Anticorruption Court Law. What’s Next?

By Maksym Kostetskyi

Ukraine finally got an Anticorruption Court on June 26. That day, President Petro Poroshenko signed the law which establishes the court. Importantly, the shortcomings of the original law the Rada had passed in June were later corrected. All appeals cases under the jurisdiction of the Anticorruption Court will be reviewed only in the Anticorruption Court, […]

Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Aug 14, 2018

Why Peace in Ukraine Cannot Wait

By Andreas Umland

The war in eastern Ukraine grinds on, forgotten by many. There’s no obvious way out. The ceasefire agreements have been continuously broken, high-level dialogue between Russia and the United States stopped months ago, and the unarmed OSCE monitors in conflict zone are continuously harassed. Some analysts suspect that Moscow is waiting until March when Ukraine […]

Europe & Eurasia Russia

UkraineAlert

Aug 13, 2018

How Rejection and Time Abroad Changed One Kyiv Activist’s Life

By Mary Trichka

The Atlantic Council has been profiling some of Ukraine’s toughest but lesser-known female activists this summer. When I spoke with Iryna Shyba, a leader with the DEJURE Foundation in Kyiv, Ukraine, she almost rejected the premise of the piece. “I don’t feel like I am doing more than any other civil society activist,” Shyba said. […]

Ukraine