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

What Lavrov’s Lies Mean for Ukraine

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

What Lavrov’s Lies Mean for Ukraine

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

What Lavrov’s Lies Mean for Ukraine

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 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


UkraineAlert

Sep 21, 2017

Sadovyi: Stop Fighting, Start Working Together

By
Melinda Haring

Andriy Sadovyi, the mayor of Lviv and leader of the Samopomich Party, hasn’t had an easy year. He was seen as the most likely challenger to President Petro Poroshenko in the 2019 presidential election before a fire at waste facility in May 2016 killed four and sullied his sterling reputation. As a result, his numbers […]


Ukraine


UkraineAlert

Sep 19, 2017

Warrior’s Heart Program Helps Ukrainian Veterans Heal

By
Iuliia Mendel

Late on the night of September 6, Oleksiy Tomilko posted a short line on social media: “Perhaps someone wants to visit me.” He was a fifty-year old soldier who had been brought to a military hospital in his native city of Lviv after he had been wounded in the Donbas, where Ukraine has been fighting […]


Ukraine


UkraineAlert

Sep 19, 2017

Why Arming Ukraine Would End the Deadlock in the Donbas

By
Adam Reichardt and Maksym Khylko

Signals from the Trump administration are beginning to indicate a new direction in the United States’ support of Ukraine. At the end of August, Secretary of Defense James Mattis stated that the Pentagon is “actively reviewing” the issue of defensive weapons, rightly noting that “defensive weapons are not provocative unless you are an aggressor, and […]


Russia

Ukraine


UkraineAlert

Sep 19, 2017

Ukraine Is Back

By
Anders Åslund

For the first time in five years, Ukraine sold its bonds on the international market. On September 18, the Ukrainian government sold $3 billion of fifteen-year Eurobonds with a 7.375 percent annual yield. The bond issue was oversubscribed by more than three times. Initial statements mentioned a planned sale of $2.5 billion, so the Ukrainian […]


Ukraine


UkraineAlert

Sep 13, 2017

The Key to Fixing Ukraine Isn’t What You Think It Is

By
Michael Getto

Health care reform should be a top priority for Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada this fall because it can help transform Ukraine. As President Petro Poroshenko has said, “I am sure that healthcare…reforms would help [in] attracting investment and increasing economic growth,” and he’s absolutely right. In June, parliament greenlighted comprehensive health reform legislation in the first […]


Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Sep 13, 2017

Russia: It’s Not Just Putin

By
Khatuna Mshvidobadze

With Russian fingers apparently thrust into all manner of cybercrime and espionage, Western publics are trying to make sense of it all. But most news accounts do not include the key to deciphering Russian behavior in cyberspace. What drives Russia is its unique nexus of government, business, and crime, perpetuated by systemic corruption and glued […]


Cybersecurity

Russia


UkraineAlert

Sep 13, 2017

Does Russia Have Hard Power in the US?

By
Lada Roslycky

There is something naïve about many people born in democratic countries. They seem to take the human rights, values, and principles upon which their countries are built for granted. Dangerously, they have a difficult time imagining that their rights and freedoms can be manipulated in such a way as to threaten their institutions, national security, […]


Russia

Ukraine


UkraineAlert

Sep 12, 2017

Russia’s Peacekeeping Proposal in Ukraine Is a Sham

By
James J. Coyle

Russia has introduced a United Nations draft resolution for peacekeepers in Ukraine amid acclaim by German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel and the chairman of the Organization for Cooperation and Security in Europe (OSCE). On its face, this would appear to meet a long-standing demand of the government in Kyiv and mark a reversal of Russia’s […]


International Organizations

Politics & Diplomacy

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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

What Lavrov’s Lies Mean for Ukraine

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

What Lavrov’s Lies Mean for Ukraine

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

What Lavrov’s Lies Mean for Ukraine

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

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

UkraineAlert

Jan 17, 2018

How Poroshenko Can Easily Be Reelected

By Diane Francis

Democracies guarantee freedom of speech for their elected politicians by granting them immunity from libel or slander for statements made inside their legislative chambers. This privilege was established centuries ago in Britain to protect the people’s representatives from the monarchy, House of Lords, and other powerful vested interests. Ukraine, on the other hand, has perverted […]

Russia Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Jan 16, 2018

What Did Ukraine’s Maidan Revolution Really Accomplish?

By Melinda Haring

Yale University history professor Marci Shore’s new book, The Ukrainian Night: An Intimate History of Revolution (Yale University Press, 2018), captures the historic period surrounding the Maidan revolution that took place in Kyiv, Ukraine, from November 2013 to February 2014, when ordinary Ukrainians took to the streets and demanded justice and dignity. Shore’s book couldn’t […]

Russia Ukraine
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