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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

May 14, 2022

Ukraine wins Eurovision as European voters show song contest solidarity

By
Peter Dickinson

Ukraine's Eurovision victory is a soft power success story that underlines the country's dominance over Russia on the information front while highlighting the strength of international solidary and support for Ukraine.


Conflict


Europe & Eurasia


UkraineAlert

May 12, 2022

Independent Ukraine’s first president Leonid Kravchuk dies aged 88

By
Peter Dickinson

Ukraine’s first post-Soviet president Leonid Kravchuk passed away on May 10. He is best remembered for his leading role in the 1991 Ukrainian Declaration of Independence and the collapse of the Soviet Union.


Conflict


Democratic Transitions


UkraineAlert

May 12, 2022

Putin’s Imperial War: Russia unveils plans to annex southern Ukraine

By
Peter Dickinson

Kremlin officials have underlined the expansionist imperial agenda driving Putin's Ukraine war by announcing plans to officially annex Ukraine's Kherson Oblast and incorporate it into the Russian Federation.


Civil Society


Conflict


UkraineAlert

May 11, 2022

Kazakhstan cancels Victory Day in protest over Putin’s Ukraine War

By
Wilder Alejandro Sánchez, Kamila Auyezova

Kazakhstan's recent decision to cancel the country's annual WWII Victory Day parade was a small but significant indication of Nur-Sultan's opposition to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.


Central Asia


Conflict


UkraineAlert

May 8, 2022

Vladimir Putin’s WWII victory cult is a recipe for international aggression

By
Andrej Lushnycky

Vladimir Putin has transformed Russia's traditional Victory Day commemorations marking the defeat of Nazi Germany into a nationalistic celebration of militarism that helps justify Moscow's war of aggression in Ukraine.


Civil Society


Conflict


UkraineAlert

May 6, 2022

Countering the Kremlin: America must not wait for European unity

By
Olexander Scherba

Vladimir Putin's ongoing invasion of Ukraine marks the culmination of Russia’s long campaign to corrupt Europe. The EU condemns the war while at the same time sponsoring it, writes Olexander Scherba.


Conflict


Corruption


UkraineAlert

May 6, 2022

Making Putin pay: Russia must finance the rebuilding of post-war Ukraine

By
Kira Rudik

Making Putin pay: Russian assets currently frozen in the West could potentially be used to finance the rebuilding of post-war Ukraine but this will require both creativity and political will from Western leaders.


Conflict


Economy & Business


UkraineAlert

May 4, 2022

Foreign policy realists should be bolder about defeating Putin in Ukraine

By
Henrik Larsen

Foreign policy realists have urged caution over Ukraine but as the conflict grinds on it is now time to recognize that the democratic world has a significant interest in securing Vladimir Putin's decisive defeat.


Conflict


European Union


UkraineAlert

May 2, 2022

Lavrov’s anti-Semitic outburst exposes absurdity of Russia’s “Nazi Ukraine” claims

By
Peter Dickinson

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has sparked a diplomatic scandal with an anti-Semitic outburst that underlines the absurdity of Russia’s relentless “Nazi Ukraine” propaganda claims.


Conflict


Democratic Transitions


UkraineAlert

May 1, 2022

Finally! German MPs back heavy weapons for Ukraine in historic vote

By
Vitaly Sych

The German Bundestag on April 28 finally agreed to supply heavy weapons to Ukraine in an historic vote that marked a departure from months of caution in Berlin and efforts to avoid confrontation with the Kremlin.


Conflict


Corruption

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.

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Content

UkraineAlert

Oct 4, 2017

Now Is the Time for Electoral Reform in Ukraine

By Brian Mefford

Ukraine’s parliament has a busy agenda this autumn. Not only is a sweeping healthcare reform package needed to fix the country’s broken system, judicial reform, the creation of a special anticorruption court, and land reform are also pending. In spite of these burning priorities, now is also the best time for parliament to pass electoral […]

Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Oct 4, 2017

US Wrongly Thought Nukes Were Ukraine’s Biggest Problem

By Anders Åslund

Ukraine has played an important role in US foreign policy since it became independent in 1991. So far, this topic has received scant scholarly interest. The most substantial book to date was Sherman Garnett, The Keystone in the Arch: Ukraine in the Emerging Security Environment of Central and Eastern Europe, which was published in 1997, […]

Ukraine

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