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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

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


UkraineAlert

Oct 1, 2025

Plight of Belarusian political prisoners must not be forgotten

By
Craig Jackson

Belarusian human rights defender Andrei Chapiuk spent almost five years in prison and says the world must not forget about the more than one thousand Belarusian political prisoners who remain behind bars.

Belarus
Civil Society


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


UkraineAlert

Sep 30, 2025

Belarus dictator must not be rewarded for releasing his own prisoners

By
Hanna Liubakova

Belarusian dictator Alyaksandr Lukashenka is attempting to repair relations with the West by trading political prisoners for concessions. If this hostage diplomacy proves successful, it will strengthen Lukashenka’s grip on power, writes Hanna Liubakova.

Belarus
Conflict


UkraineAlert

Sep 25, 2025

Trump called Russia a ‘paper tiger’ because he believes Putin is losing

By
Peter Dickinson

US President Donald Trump now says Ukraine can defeat Russia. His dramatic change in tone reflects growing recognition that Putin’s invasion is not going according to the Kremlin plan, writes Peter Dickinson.

Conflict
Disinformation


UkraineAlert

Sep 25, 2025

Ukrainians believe there can be no lasting peace without security

By
Yaroslava Shvechykova-Plavska

Ukrainians are acutely aware that Russia remains determined to erase Ukraine and understand that the war will not truly be over until the Kremlin has been decisively deterred from pursuing its imperial ambitions, writes Yaroslava Shvechykova-Plavska.

Conflict
Freedom and Prosperity


UkraineAlert

Sep 24, 2025

What we can learn from Tibetan and Ukrainian freedom fighters

By
Nolan Peterson

Nolan Peterson reflects on his experience embedded in the Tibetan and Ukrainian freedom struggles as he has sought to understand how these two nations summoned the will to defy the empires that meant to destroy them.

China
Conflict


UkraineAlert

Sep 23, 2025

Putin is escalating Russia’s hybrid war against Europe. Is Europe ready?

By
Maksym Beznosiuk

Putin has clearly been encouraged by Trump’s efforts to downgrade America’s involvement in transatlantic security and feels emboldened to escalate his own hybrid war against Europe, writes Maksym Beznosiuk.

Belarus
Conflict


UkraineAlert

Sep 22, 2025

Moldova accuses Russia of election interference ahead of key vote

By
Aidan Stretch

Moldova is raising the alarm over Russian interference ahead of this weekend’s parliamentary election amid fears that a pro-Kremlin victory could derail Moldova’s EU ambitions and create a new front in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, writes Aidan Stretch.

Conflict
Corruption


UkraineAlert

Sep 18, 2025

Putin’s Polish probe demands decisive response to restore NATO deterrence

By
Zahar Hryniv

Putin’s recent drone escalation in the skies over Poland is an unmistakable signal that NATO’s credibility is under threat. Western leaders must now respond decisively to deter further Russian aggression, writes Zahar Hryniv.

Conflict
Drones

spotlight

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

Oct 4, 2017

History as a Weapon in Russia’s War on Ukraine

By Peter Dickinson

The international media will embrace all things Bolshevik this autumn as the world marks the centenary of the Russian Revolution. Audiences can expect everything from gushing feature articles about early Soviet cinematography to edgy op-eds on the place of propaganda posters in twentieth century art. Amid this deluge of Communist kitsch, we are unlikely to […]

Russia Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Oct 2, 2017

Merkel’s Next Challenge: Defeating Putin in Central Eastern Europe

By Péter Krekó

Now that the German elections are over and the victorious Chancellor Angela Merkel is preparing for coalition talks with potential partners, two important questions arise: how will the political changes in Germany affect German-Russian relations, which have become embittered in the last few years? And what impact could the election have on Germany’s influence in […]

Germany Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Sep 29, 2017

Ukraine’s Got a Real Chance to Change. Will It Blow It Again?

By Diane Francis

Ukraine’s future rests on whether its judicial reforms will bring about the rule of law for the first time in its history, or whether political influence continues to contaminate its system. It appears the latter is the case. Today, 111 new Supreme Court nominees were proposed to President Petro Poroshenko for his signature to begin […]

Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Sep 28, 2017

Trump and Poroshenko: The Billionaire Boys Club

By Adrian Karatnycky

Petro Poroshenko scored a prized diplomatic plum for which most heads of state and government aggressively vie: a one-on-one meeting with President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York. In addition to Ukraine’s president, Trump held only nine other private meetings with the heads of state or government […]

Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Sep 28, 2017

How to Keep the Russian Bear Out of Ukraine’s Energy Sector

By Olga Bielkova and Anders Åslund

Russia is at war with Ukraine. This is a hybrid war with many arms. One of them is energy. The Kremlin has weaponized the energy trade between Russia and Ukraine to impose a client-state status on Ukraine. Given its weak negotiating position, Ukraine had to accept Gazprom’s unjustified prices. Facing the threat of supply interruptions, […]

Russia Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Sep 28, 2017

Patriot: Working Hard to Bring Home Ukrainian POWs

By Vera Zimmerman

The situation with prisoners of war being held in Ukraine’s occupied Donbas is a tragedy. Some have been locked up for over two years, some tortured, and a few executed. Access to them by international missions is usually denied. Despairing families sometimes fall prey to swindlers seeking ransom. Since the war is officially undeclared, these […]

Russia Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Sep 26, 2017

Who Says that Russians Have to Live Under a Corrupt, Aging, and Irrational Strongman?

By Anastazia Clouting

On September 13, a man who cheated death twice came to Washington. Vladimir Kara-Murza, a journalist and deputy head of the nongovernmental organization Open Russia, survived a second state-sanctioned poisoning in February. He has lived to deliver a message for democratic allies in the West. In a speech at the US Capitol, Kara-Murza said, “It […]

Russia Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Sep 26, 2017

Four Real Ways to Fix Ukraine Now

By Josh Cohen

Kyiv continues to make great progress stabilizing its economy as Ukraine’s recent sale of a $3 billion Eurobond demonstrates. When it comes to anticorruption reforms, though, it continues to be a case of two steps forward and one step back. To break this stalemate, Ukraine’s Western friends should push Kyiv to take the following four […]

Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Sep 22, 2017

Ukraine’s Diplomatic War for Peace

By Nataliya Katser-Buchkovska

These early autumn days are still hot—particularly for the upper crust of the diplomatic world attending the United Nations General Assembly’s 72nd session. Much remains at stake. In particular, Ukraine will once again be requesting UN peacekeeping missions and other assistance from the United Nations to help bring the conflict in the east to a […]

Russia Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Sep 21, 2017

The Tragedy of Ukrainian Politics

By Melinda Haring

It’s no secret that Ukraine’s reforms have stalled. Reformers both in and out of government agree, however, that the one change that might reignite the country’s push for reform is the establishment of an independent anticorruption court. Ukraine’s beleaguered activists have urged the government to adopt it, and the West led by the International Monetary […]

Ukraine