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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

Jan 8, 2019

How Ukraine’s Next President Can Turn the Country Around

By
Anders Åslund

On March 31, Ukraine will hold the first round of its presidential election. This is a tremendous opportunity to restart Ukraine’s reforms. The election debate needs to focus on the most important issue, namely the enforcement of property rights. Five years after the Revolution of Dignity and Russia’s invasion, Ukraine’s situation remains precarious. The rule […]


Russia


Ukraine


UkraineAlert

Jan 6, 2019

Ukraine’s new Orthodox Church free from Moscow but fight isn’t over

By
John E. Herbst

Even with limitations, the tomos is a very good thing for Ukraine and a victory for Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, who has worked hard, along with Patriarch Filaret of the now-defunct Kyiv Patriarchate.


Ukraine


UkraineAlert

Jan 6, 2019

How Putin lost Ukraine for good

By
Taras Kuzio

Ukraine’s independence from Russia is Kyiv’s ultimate answer to Putin’s unprovoked imperialism and military aggression.


Civil Society


Nationalism


UkraineAlert

Jan 4, 2019

Cheap ways to make Putin pay in Ukraine

By
John E. Herbst

Six weeks ago, Russia attacked Ukraine in the Straits of Kerch and it made international news. US President Donald Trump canceled a high-level meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in response. Other governments denounced the Kremlin’s actions. Then the news faded. Right now, the weak Western response means that Putin has gained a tactical advantage, […]


Conflict


Elections


UkraineAlert

Jan 4, 2019

Putin’s Grand Energy Strategy Is More Ambitious than You Think

By
Stephen Blank

Energy politics are critical in Russia’s long war on the West and Ukraine. Indeed, energy functions as a Swiss army knife for Moscow, cutting simultaneously in several directions. Energy provides the basis for the revenue stream that enables all government operations, comprises a ready source of constant corruption of European elites and institutions, and furnishes […]


Hungary


Russia


UkraineAlert

Jan 2, 2019

Ukraine’s Top Comedian Is Running for President. And No, This Isn’t a Bad Joke

By
Mykola Vorobiov

On New Year’s Eve, Ukraine’s top comedian Volodymyr Zelenskiy announced that he will run for president.   The timing of the announcement was curious: Zelenskiy’s short spot aired before President Petro Poroshenko’s annual address on the second most popular TV channel “1+1,” which belongs to Ihor Kolomoisky. The order caused many to speculate that the Ukrainian oligarch Kolomoisky […]


Ukraine


UkraineAlert

Dec 21, 2018

Why No One Is Right about Ukraine’s Anti-Corruption Reforms

By
John Lough and Vladimir Dubrovskiy

The experience of the past four years shows that in Ukraine, it is far easier and more effective to shrink the space for corrupt practices than to deter corruption by punishing guilty individuals. To this extent, Ukraine’s anti-corruption reforms have been working.


Ukraine


UkraineAlert

Dec 20, 2018

Why 2019 Will Be Year of Continued Growth for Business in Ukraine

By
Andy Hunder

Ukraine is back on the front pages of the world’s top newspapers. Twice in the past three weeks Ukraine featured on the cover photo of the Financial Times. The headlines read: “US Backs Kyiv in Naval Clash with Kremlin” and “Kyiv Splits from Russian Church.” The news headings highlight the U-turn that Ukrainians have made shifting away […]


Russia


Ukraine


UkraineAlert

Dec 18, 2018

Best of the Best: Top 10 Articles of 2018

By
Melinda Haring

As the year ends, I am invariably swamped with requests for our top 10 list. Without further ado, here are the best performing articles UkraineAlert published in 2018:


UkraineAlert

Dec 17, 2018

Ukraine’s an IT Powerhouse. So Why Isn’t It Making More?

By
Vitalii Rybak

Ukraine’s information technology sector has been among the country’s fastest growing industries, and IT experts from Ukraine have found international success. Its companies, however, have developed largely in service and outsourcing. IT in Ukraine may outgrow these market segments eventually, but it isn’t there yet.


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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Content

UkraineAlert

Jan 26, 2018

Lethal Weapons to Ukraine: A Primer

By Peter J. Marzalik and Aric Toler

On December 22, 2017, the Trump administration approved supplying Javelin anti-tank missiles to Ukraine, capping a nearly three-year debate in Washington over whether the United States should provide lethal defensive weapons to counter further Russian aggression in Europe. A few days prior the US Department of State announced that senior officials had authorized a sizeable […]

Russia Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Jan 25, 2018

Will the Kremlin’s Most Important Ally in Europe Be Reelected?

By Veronika Víchová, Markéta Krejčí, and Klára Veverka

One day remains until the second round of the Czech presidential election, and polls show a tie with 10 percent of voters undecided. The race pits the current president, Miloš Zeman, against the former chairman of the Academy of Sciences, Jiří Drahoš. New reports allege that there’s a hidden scheme to support pro-Russian president Zeman—at […]

Central Europe Russia

UkraineAlert

Jan 24, 2018

What Lavrov’s Lies Mean for Ukraine

By Stephen Blank

Voltaire reportedly said that those who can persuade one to believe absurdities will lead one to commit atrocities. In contemporary politics Russia’s stance on Ukraine represents a cardinal example of the enduring validity of his remark. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov recently restated three lies: there are no Russian troops in the Donbas, the conflict […]

Russia Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Jan 22, 2018

Russia Cannot Acknowledge MH17 Role without Exposing Secret Ukraine War

By Peter Dickinson

The shooting down of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over Ukraine on July 17, 2014, transformed a localized post-Soviet conflict into a major global crisis. With victims from eleven different countries including 189 Dutch citizens, the international backlash was prompt and marked a clear escalation in the confrontation between Russia and the West over the war […]

Russia Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Jan 22, 2018

Justice Deferred but Not Yet Denied

By Mykhailo Zhernakov

2017 was a pivotal year in Ukraine, but not the way we expected. We were supposed to get a brand new Supreme Court to replace four old cassation courts that were synonymous with corruption and abuse. Instead, it was new only on paper.

Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Jan 22, 2018

Ukraine: Where Watchdogs Need Safeguards

By Luke Drabyn and Samantha Feinstein

It is ironic but fitting that in Ukraine, the agency tasked with protecting whistleblowers has instead fostered so much corruption that its own employees, after speaking out, have become victims of retaliation. In mid-November, Hanna Solomatina, the former head of the financial control department within the National Agency for Corruption Prevention (NACP), alleged that she […]

Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Jan 22, 2018

When Will We See a Breakthrough in Ukraine?

By Pavlo Sheremeta

When asked what the exchange rate will be in 2018, I answer a question with a question: when will elections in Ukraine take place? A definite answer  is hard to come by in our country. Only one thing is certain: the fight in Ukraine will continue. Anders Åslund, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, […]

Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Jan 18, 2018

Ukraine’s Making Real Progress in the Energy Sector

By Olga Bielkova

Energy independence is a question of national security for Ukraine, and one that we worked on assiduously in 2017. Most observers know that Naftogaz emerged victorious in an $80 billion arbitration case in Stockholm, but that’s only part of the story. Here are the big five milestones that really mattered for the energy sector last […]

Russia Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Jan 18, 2018

Why Russia’s Soft Power Is Here to Stay (At Least for Now)

By Matthew Finkel

Hydrocarbon exports remain the centerpiece of Russia’s national revival strategy, despite the negative impact of developmental and investment setbacks, OPEC price dumping in traditional Russian export markets, Western sanctions, and a growing push toward energy independence in Eastern Europe. Russia continues to suffer from many of the classic symptoms of Dutch disease: a number of […]

Russia Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Jan 18, 2018

Why Poroshenko’s Anti-Corruption Court Is a Sham Proposal

By Anastasia Krasnosilska

Ukrainians want corrupt public officials to go to jail. It didn’t happen in 2014, 2015, 2016, or 2017. In July, a Kyiv court released Roman Tymkiv, the head of a state-owned military plant, on bail. Tymkiv was accused of embezzling $1 million by supplying the Ukrainian army with used tank engines for the price of […]

Ukraine