UkraineAlert

UkraineAlert

UkraineAlert is a comprehensive online publication that provides regular news and analysis on developments in Ukraine’s politics, economy, civil society, and culture. UkraineAlert sources analysis and commentary from a wide-array of thought-leaders, politicians, experts, and activists from Ukraine and the global community. UkraineAlert has become a major publication in Ukraine’s news landscape and has established itself not only through its quality of content but also significant partnerships with English, Ukrainian, and Russian-language media through the country.

Stay Updated

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

The Truth Behind Ukraine’s Language Policy

UkraineAlert
Sep 3, 2026

Putin cannot defeat NATO but he could divide and discredit the alliance

By
Peter Dickinson

If Russian President Vladimir Putin decides to attack NATO, his goal will be to divide and discredit the alliance rather than actually defeating it, writes Peter Dickinson.

Conflict
Defense Policy

The Truth Behind Ukraine’s Language Policy

UkraineAlert
Aug 27, 2026

Ukrainians are not superheroes with endless powers of resilience

By
Lauren Van Metre, Elena Davlikanova

By celebrating Ukrainian resilience as an almost superhuman quality, the international community risks obscuring the much less glamorous reality that Ukrainians are actually ordinary people who have endured extraordinary violence for far too long, write Lauren Van Metre and Elena Davlikanova.

Civil Society
Conflict

The Truth Behind Ukraine’s Language Policy

UkraineAlert
Aug 25, 2026

A cultural renaissance is reshaping national identity in wartime Ukraine

By
Davis Richardson

Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine is fueling a defiant cultural outpouring that is redefining and strengthening Ukrainian national identity in ways that challenge centuries of Kremlin imperialism, writes Davis Richardson.

Civil Society
Conflict

Latest analysis

UkraineAlert

Sep 10, 2018

How to Lose a Presidential Election Before It Even Starts: Ukraine’s Top Reform Party Turns on Itself

By
Melinda Haring

Ukraine’s Maidan reformers had a real shot at reaching a tipping point and changing the country once and for all. In 2014, the reform-oriented Samopomich party, led by Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovyi, performed far better than expected in the parliamentary elections just a few months after street protests ejected pro-Russian President Victor Yanukovych. The Lviv-based […]


Ukraine


UkraineAlert

Sep 7, 2018

Why Does the Press Still Take Moscow at Its Word?

By
Paul Niland

Reporting on the recent killing of Alexander Zakharchenko in Donetsk, Ukraine, has enraged many, and with good reason. Far too many reports from top outlets included the phrase or something similar, “Moscow denies sending regular troops and heavy weaponry to Ukraine, the rebels, or separatists.” Of course, Moscow regularly issues such denials. However, the time […]


Russia

Ukraine


UkraineAlert

Sep 7, 2018

Forget Javelins. What Ukraine Needs to Get Putin’s Attention

By
Stephen Blank

US Ambassador Kurt Volker recently toldThe Guardian that the United States was prepared to offer Ukraine new weapons to defend itself. There is no doubt that Ukraine needs these weapons; in the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea, Moscow is waging a simultaneous military and economic war against Kyiv. It has blockaded the Sea […]


Russia

Ukraine


UkraineAlert

Sep 6, 2018

The Past Comes Back to Haunt Putin’s Man in Ukraine

By
Mykola Vorobiov

A current controversy brewing in Ukraine illustrates just how relevant the Soviet past is to Ukraine’s present and future—and just how powerful the forces are that aim to reconnect Ukraine and its former hegemon, Russia.


Russia

Ukraine


UkraineAlert

Sep 5, 2018

Straight Talk: Odesa Businessman Says Foreign Investors Aren’t Worried About What You Think

By
Oksana Bedratenko

Andrey Stavnitser is a second generation businessman with a clean reputation in Ukraine. He’s also young and ambitious. The bushy-bearded thirty-six-year old turned his father’s TiS company into the largest private port in Ukraine and the largest of all Ukraine’s ports by dry cargo turnover. By investing aggressively in infrastructure, Stavnitser is proving that the […]


Russia

Ukraine


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

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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

The Truth Behind Ukraine’s Language Policy

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

The Truth Behind Ukraine’s Language Policy

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

The Truth Behind Ukraine’s Language Policy

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

Mar 12, 2018

The Truth Behind Ukraine’s Language Policy

By Tetyana Ogarkova

On February 28, Ukraine’s Constitutional Court ruled the bill “On the principles of the state language policy” unconstitutional and rendered it invalid. The law in question, adopted back in 2012 and known as the “Kivalov-Kolesnichenko language law,” granted Russian the status of a “regional language.” It was precisely the abolition of this law by the […]

Ukraine

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
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