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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

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


UkraineAlert

Feb 26, 2018

How I Remember Boris Nemtsov

By
Vladimir Kara-Murza

Editor’s note: Russian politician Boris Nemtsov was assassinated on February 27, 2015, in Moscow, Russia. Below his friend and fellow activist Vladimir Kara-Murza remembers the slain leader. Throughout his political life, Boris Nemtsov was a maverick, a “white crow,” as we say in Russian, always choosing principles over political expediency—as when he took on the […]


Russia


Ukraine


UkraineAlert

Feb 26, 2018

Canada’s Big Opportunity to Push Back Against Putin

By
Danylo Lubkivsky and Volodymyr Yermolenko

Canada assumed the G7 presidency on January 1, 2018, and this platform offers a valuable opportunity to inject some new energy into the international response to Russia’s annexation of Crimea and aggression in eastern Ukraine. Under Canada’s leadership, the G7 can spotlight human rights violations in both annexed Crimea and the occupied Donbas. Canada is […]


Ukraine


United States and Canada


UkraineAlert

Feb 26, 2018

Ukraine Still Needs an Anti-Corruption Court

By
Josh Cohen

The dramatic detainment of Odesa Mayor Gennadiy Trukhanov by detectives from the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) at Kyiv’s Boryspil Airport after a long absence from the country demonstrates why Ukraine desperately needs an anti-corruption court. While Trukhanov has long been suspected of mafia ties and  involvement in multiple corrupt schemes, the Solomiansky District Court released Trukhanov without bail, instead requiring only the personal guarantee of Poroshenko […]


Ukraine


UkraineAlert

Feb 26, 2018

Ukraine’s Stolen History, Stolen Culture

By
Lesia Kuruts-Tkach

Until recently, Ukrainian culture was perceived internationally as a subset of Russian culture. Even now, after Ukraine has had almost twenty-seven years of independence and with hundreds of years of history behind it, Ukrainian history is often presented as Russian. Mykola Gogol, Volodymyr the Great, the Kyivan Rus, Anne of Kyiv—all of this is Ukrainian, […]


Russia


Ukraine


UkraineAlert

Feb 22, 2018

Ukraine Is Not an Afterthought

By
Stephen Blank

One of the Russians attending the Munich Security Conference last week tweeted that based on the speeches he had heard, Ukraine was an afterthought in Europe. Nothing would comfort Moscow more than to believe that for the West, Russia’s aggression in Ukraine is merely a minor concern. That would make the tasks of obstructing the […]


Russia


Ukraine


UkraineAlert

Feb 21, 2018

Ukraine Can Do Far Better, Aivaras Abromavičius Says

By
Iuliia Mendel

In December 2014, President Petro Poroshenko granted citizenship to three foreign technocrats, Lithuanian Aivaras Abromavičius, American Natalie Jaresko, and Georgian Alexander Kvitashvili, who were nominated for cabinet positions. The foreign masterminds were expected to contribute expert advice to overcome the severe economic and defense threats facing Ukraine. Minister of Economic Development and Trade Aivaras Abromavičius […]


Ukraine


UkraineAlert

Feb 20, 2018

How to Remember the Final Days of Ukraine’s Maidan Revolution

By
Paul Niland

For those of us who were on the ground in Kyiv, Ukraine, in the middle of the burning barricades from February 18 to 20, 2014, we could have no idea where or when or how the revolution would end. During those three February days, more than one hundred were killed, thousands were wounded, and dozens […]


Ukraine

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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.

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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UkraineAlert

Apr 26, 2018

Leak May Put Brakes on Putin’s European Pipeline Dominance

By Oleksandr Kharchenko

Gazprom has been making headlines in Europe lately. And not in a good way. The leaking of a 271-page report compiled by the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Competition, which describes violations of European legislation by the Russian gas monopoly Gazprom, recently became a sensation. It’s not, however, because the report reveals any previously unknown facts. […]

Russia Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Apr 25, 2018

What Happened to the Ships the US Tried to Give to Ukraine?

By Valeriya Yegoshyna

Editor’s note: On September 27, the United States officially transferred two former 110-foot Coast Guard cutters ships to Ukraine. However, the question remains: why did it take the Ukrainian government nearly four-and-a-half years to accept the US offer? We recommend the excellent RFE/RL “Schemes” investigation below.  Four years after Crimea’s annexation, Ukraine is still struggling to […]

Russia Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Apr 24, 2018

What Europe’s Forgotten War Actually Feels Like

By Ruslan Minich

“We were moving through flashing fields. And I realized history was evolving right in front of my very eyes. I had yellow goggles on; everything was yellow with them. I took the goggles off, and then the wind started blowing in my eyes. I couldn’t see anything,” says volunteer soldier Bizhan Sharopov, who fought against […]

Russia Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Apr 24, 2018

Ukraine May Be Getting Its Own Church, but Not as Fast as Poroshenko Thinks

By James J. Coyle

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko announced on April 17 that Ukraine might have an independent, unified Ukrainian Orthodox Church as early as July 28—the anniversary of Kyivan Rus’ adoption of Christianity. He made this prediction after the Ukrainian parliament voted to support the president’s efforts to convince Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew to grant autocephalous status to the […]

Russia Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Apr 24, 2018

As Some Bail, Denis Gursky Sees Ukraine as Land of Opportunity, and Thinks You Should Too

By Melinda Haring

It’s Easter Monday in Kyiv, a holiday, and no one is working except Denis Gursky. The affable Mariupol native has an anxiety-inducing to-do list, but you wouldn’t know it from his easy laugh and wide smile. We meet at Gursky’s stunning new 500-square meter co-working space in Kyiv’s tallest commercial building to discuss Ukraine’s unique […]

Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Apr 19, 2018

How to Build a Real Political Party in Ukraine

By Viola Gienger

Oleksandr Solontay is trying to accomplish the political equivalent of pushing Ukraine’s winter snow uphill. In a country that still struggles to shake its addiction to oligarchs and other figureheads despite multiple attempts at revolution, the thirty-seven-year old is aiming to construct a political party from the ground up. Solontay, an educator and former city […]

Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Apr 19, 2018

Why Ukraine’s Radical Parties Are Sitting Pretty for Upcoming Elections

By Mykola Vorobiov

Ukrainian nationalism is growing quickly, but radical parties have never done well in elections. This may change in 2019, when Ukraine will hold both presidential and parliamentary elections, which are the first national elections after the Euromaidan revolution and the Russian military invasion in 2014. While Ukraine has committed to joining Euro-Atlantic institutions and embarked […]

Russia Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Apr 19, 2018

Why Ukraine’s Anti-Corruption Drive Is Failing

By Tetyana Ogarkova

After the victory of the Euromaidan, the demand for combating corruption drastically increased, and new institutions were established to fight high-level corruption. However, there is an ongoing conflict between two of the newly established agencies that greatly diminishes their ability to fight corruption. Below we explain the fight in ten question and answers.

Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Apr 16, 2018

Russian Americans Say Keep It Up, President Trump

By Dmitry Valuev

The Congress of Russian Americans, a group claiming to represent five million Russian-speaking Americans, recently wrote to US President Donald Trump deploring the state of Russian-American relations, denouncing the expulsion of sixty Russian diplomats from the United States, and denying Russia’s involvement in the recent poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury, England. […]

Russia

UkraineAlert

Apr 13, 2018

Presidential Administration Says Law Requiring Activists to Disclose Assets Is Invalid and Unenforceable, but Ukraine’s Activists Aren’t Buying It

By Melinda Haring

For more than a year, Ukraine’s government and activists have been at odds over a March 2017 law that requires activists to disclose their assets online in the same way that public officials do. The law was roundly criticized by Ukrainian civil society as well as by the international community. But now, the Presidential Administration […]

Ukraine