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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

Dec 17, 2020

Why East European gas markets should integrate

By
Aura Sabadus

To meet the four key gas sector challenges facing them, regional countries including Ukraine, Moldova, Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, and Turkey will need to work in unison to satisfy mutual interests.


Eastern Europe


Energy Markets & Governance


UkraineAlert

Dec 17, 2020

International Criminal Court is no panacea for Ukraine

By
Wayne Jordash and Anna Mykytenko

The International Criminal Court announced plans in December 2020 for a probe into possible war crimes committed in Ukraine since 2014, but past experience indicates the road to justice will be long.


Conflict


International Organizations


UkraineAlert

Dec 17, 2020

International investigation into Ukraine war crimes is Kremlin’s worst nightmare

By
Dmytro Kuleba

The International Criminal Court looks set to begin an investigation into war crimes in Ukraine since 2014, opening the way for a trial that could eventually hold Russia to account for its six-year war against Ukraine.


Conflict


Russia


UkraineAlert

Dec 14, 2020

The issue Ukraine’s first lady should champion vocally

By
Laryssa Horodysky and Melinda Haring

A recent report by Amnesty International has highlighted the growing domestic violence crisis in war-torn eastern Ukraine. Coronavirus lockdown conditions are expected to add to the problem.


Coronavirus


Human Rights


UkraineAlert

Dec 14, 2020

Reloading Ukraine’s privatization process

By
Dmytro Sennychenko

The Ukrainian parliament is scheduled to consider a new bill in late December 2020 that aims to continue a radical reload of the country's privatization process begun in 2019.


Corruption


Economy & Business


UkraineAlert

Dec 12, 2020

National parties lose out to local candidates in Ukraine’s 2020 municipal elections

By
Brian Mefford

The 2020 Ukrainian local elections were a victory for local over national politics. 11 of 24 oblast centers were won by candidates who were either self-nominated or representing their own regional party.


Elections


Ukraine


UkraineAlert

Dec 10, 2020

The EU must help resolve constitutional crisis in Kyiv

By
Willem Aldershoff

Ukraine's Constitutional Court has plunged the country into a crisis that threatens its post-2014 progress. The EU can help Kyiv fight back by imposing sanctions on the MPs leading the attack on anti-corruption reforms.


Corruption


Democratic Transitions


UkraineAlert

Dec 9, 2020

Letter to the Editor: Recent Yulia Tymoshenko “Kremlin proxy” claims are nonsense

By
Natasha Lysova

Letter to the Editor: The Press Secretary of Batkivshchyna Party leader Yulia Tymoshenko voices her objection to Naftogaz CEO Andriy Kobolyev's characterization of Tymoshenko as a "Kremlin proxy"


Energy Markets & Governance


Geopolitics & Energy Security


UkraineAlert

Dec 8, 2020

Can privatization transform Ukraine’s alcohol industry?

By
Sergey Bleskun

In 2019, President Zelenskyy initiated the privatization of Ukraine's state-owned alcohol producers in a bid to reform what is one of the most corrupt sectors of the Ukrainian economy and generate budget revenues.


Corruption


Economy & Business


New Atlanticist

Dec 7, 2020

Belarusian opposition leader’s message to the West: ‘Stay with us and we will win’

By
David A. Wemer

Explicit support from Western governments for the Belarusian people and stronger pressure on Lukashenka and his allies will help oust the regime and allow for new elections, Tsikhanouskaya said. “Stay with us and we will win.”


Belarus


Civil Society

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.

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 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

UkraineAlert

Sep 12, 2017

North Korean Missile Engines: Not from Ukraine

By Mariana Budjeryn and Andrew Zhalko-Tytarenko

A new report points to Ukraine as a possible source of liquid propellant engines (LPE) powering intercontinental-range missiles successfully ground-tested by North Korea last year and flight-tested this year. As the world grapples with the fait accompli of North Korean nuclear and missile capability, the path Pyongyang took to acquire it is of considerable interest, […]

Korea Russia

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