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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

Nov 20, 2021

Defensive Putin accuses West of ignoring Russian red lines

By
Anders Åslund

Russian President Vladimir Putin's November 18 foreign policy speech to Russian diplomats was one of the most defensive performances of his 21-year reign, argues Anders Åslund.


Conflict


National Security


UkraineAlert

Nov 18, 2021

Why wartime Ukraine’s defense minister must be a civilian

By
Andriy Zagorodnyuk

The recent appointment of Oleksiy Reznikov as Ukraine’s new defense minister is a step in the right direction away from the Soviet model towards NATO standards of civilian control over the Ukrainian armed forces.


Defense Industry


Defense Policy


UkraineAlert

Nov 16, 2021

New book recounts prisoner torture in Russian-occupied eastern Ukraine

By
Andrew D’Anieri

A new book by Ukrainian journalist Stanislav Aseyev seeks to raise international awareness of the secret prisons in Russian-occupied eastern Ukraine where detainees are subjected to grave human rights abuses.


Conflict


Human Rights


Event Recap

Nov 16, 2021

What happened to the Kyiv Post?

By
Eurasia Center

On November 8, a single article appeared on the Kyiv Post's website. It's message: The newspaper would shut down for a "for a short time." But there might be more to the story. Melinda Haring dives in with former writers and editors with the Kyiv Post.


Civil Society


Media


UkraineAlert

Nov 15, 2021

Escalating Belarus border crisis could pose a security threat to Ukraine

By
Bohdan Nahaylo

The escalating migrant crisis on the Polish-Belarusian border poses a potential threat to Ukraine, which shares a long and vulnerable 1,000 km border with Belarus and could serve as an alternative route into the EU.


Belarus


Conflict


UkraineAlert

Nov 15, 2021

New US-Ukraine Charter underlines American commitment to Ukrainian security

By
Anders Åslund

The new US-Ukraine Charter on Strategic Partnership adopted on November 10 underlines American support for Ukrainian security and US concerns over the possibility of further Russian aggression.


Disinformation


Non-Traditional Threats


UkraineAlert

Nov 15, 2021

Ukraine’s Anti-Oligarch Law: President Zelenskyy’s populist power grab?

By
Kira Rudik

Ukraine's anti-oligarch law is being trumpeted by President Zelenskyy's supporters as a move to reduce the influence of Ukraine’s oligarch elite. However, it looks more like a populist ploy to strengthen presidential powers, writes Holos leader Kira Rudik.


Corruption


Media


UkraineAlert

Nov 11, 2021

Time to rediscover eastern Ukraine’s surprisingly cosmopolitan past

By
Peter Dickinson

Moscow has long cultivated the myth of eastern Ukraine as an indivisible part of Russia’s ancestral heartlands but in reality the region has a surprisingly cosmopolitan past that makes a mockery of Kremlin propaganda claims.


Conflict


Disinformation


UkraineAlert

Nov 9, 2021

Nord Stream 2: Germany must listen to Ukrainian security concerns

By
Olga Bielkova

Ukraine has requested a role in the German process to certify Nord Stream 2 amid fears in Kyiv that the pipeline could pave the wave for an escalation in ongoing Russian military aggression against Ukraine.


Conflict


Energy Markets & Governance


UkraineAlert

Nov 8, 2021

De-oligarchization of Ukraine is President Zelenskyy’s top priority

By
Andriy Yermak

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's anti-oligarch agenda holds the key to Ukraine's reform ambitions and is vital for the country's future national security, argues presidential chief of staff Andriy Yermak.


Corruption


Democratic Transitions

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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

Sep 12, 2017

Ukrainians’ Stock Soars in Central Europe as Employers Vie for Labor

By James Brooke

One of this summer’s big lessons is that the image of Ukrainians has turned around in the region. As Central European governments fight to block EU-mandated quotas of asylum seekers from Syria and Iraq, Ukraine has emerged as the region’s source of desirable guest workers. Czech, Slovak, Hungarian, and Estonian governments have set up recruiting […]

Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Sep 7, 2017

Scarred: How Famine Shaped Modern Ukraine and Russia

By Diane Francis

In the 1930s, Joseph Stalin committed crimes against humanity by purposely starving to death more than four million Ukrainians for resisting his Five-Year Plan to collectivize agriculture. Millions more fled and in 1937, Stalin executed or imprisoned hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian leaders and influencers. For three more generations, Russia kept Stalin’s genocide hidden until […]

Russia Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Sep 7, 2017

Pyongyang’s Ambitions Have Nothing to Do with Kyiv and Everything to Do with Moscow

By Lada Roslycky

The North Korean leadership, headed by 33-year-old Kim Jong-un, is openly threatening its neighbors, as well as the United States, with missile strikes. How has this little country, most of whose citizens live in poverty, managed to cause such a global security issue? A recent New York Times article accused Ukraine of illegally supplying rocket […]

Korea Russia

UkraineAlert

Sep 7, 2017

Will Ukraine’s Parliament Accomplish Anything This Fall?

By Olena Prokopenko and Christina Parandii

On September 5, a new political season began in Ukraine. Parliamentary speaker Andriy Parubiy has already branded parliament’s new plenary session “the autumn of reforms” by promising to deliver results on some of the most hot-button issues, including healthcare, pension, education, and judicial reforms. Parliament is behind and needs to kick things into high gear; […]

Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Sep 5, 2017

Should the US Arm Ukraine? For the Answer, Look to the Soviet-Afghan War

By Johnny Herbst

In February 2014, Russia seized and annexed Crimea; a few weeks later, Moscow launched its no-longer-covert hybrid war against Ukraine in the Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts. It is now 2017 and the situation remains relatively unchanged. The conflict in the east is at a standstill, no side has a clear advantage, and it appears that […]

Russia Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Sep 5, 2017

Parliament Is the Problem in Ukraine

By Peter Dickinson

September marks the beginning of season 48 of “Game of Chairs,” otherwise known as the Ukrainian parliament. As the country’s MPs return for the autumn parliamentary session, few will be tuning in. While the palace intrigues and Machiavellian plot twists of HBO’s “Game of Thrones” makes for compulsive viewing, the ideological ambiguity and backroom dealing […]

Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Sep 4, 2017

How to Finish the Revolution in Ukraine

By Olena Sotnyk

More than three years after the Euromaidan, Ukraine still hasn’t successfully prosecuted any high-level crooks, and we’ve got plenty here. At Stanford University’s Draper Hills Summer Fellowship this summer, we examined how to catch a “big fish” and looked at a case study in Indonesia, where the country’s anticorruption commission had just begun. Despite being […]

Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Aug 30, 2017

Ukraine Needs Arms, Not Cheap Arguments

By John E. Herbst

The United States is seriously considering giving Ukraine lethal defensive weapons, and this is the right move. Over the last month, Michael Brendan Dougherty and I have debated this issue here and here. In his latest response, Dougherty tries to rack up a quick win. He claims that experts issued a report arguing for arming Ukraine […]

Russia Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Aug 30, 2017

Things Are Looking Up in Ukraine

By Katie LaRoque

For the first time since Ukraine’s 2014 Revolution of Dignity, the International Republican Institute’s (IRI) polls show a slight improvement in the country. It’s finally possible to be cautiously optimistic about Ukraine. Here are the four key takeaways from IRI’s latest national public opinion survey.

Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Aug 30, 2017

How Ukraine Can Win the Revolution Again

By Kateryna Smagliy

Ukraine now boasts a new layer of democratic paint, but the old oligarchic colors are peeking through. Three years after Petro Poroshenko assumed the presidency, numerous experts warn that a counter-revolution is on the horizon and that Ukraine may slide back to authoritarianism. Ukraine is at serious risk of failing again. Civic activists failed to […]

Ukraine