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

Ukraine Needs Arms, Not Cheap Arguments

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

Ukraine Needs Arms, Not Cheap Arguments

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

Ukraine Needs Arms, Not Cheap Arguments

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

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

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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

Ukraine Needs Arms, Not Cheap Arguments

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

Ukraine Needs Arms, Not Cheap Arguments

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

Ukraine Needs Arms, Not Cheap Arguments

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

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

UkraineAlert

Aug 29, 2017

How Trump Can Get Putin’s Attention

By Stephen Blank

Two days after Russia told US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson it was willing to talk about Ukraine, Moscow unilaterally and illegally closed the Kerch Strait, ostensibly for technical reasons. So much for a willingness to talk. Russia is not only threatening Ukraine again, it also is displaying contempt for President Donald Trump personally. Moscow’s […]

Russia Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Aug 15, 2017

The Challenge Ahead in Eastern Ukraine

By Askold Krushelnycky

Bloody fighting between government troops and pro-Kremlin separatists and Russian regulars has continued for three years in Ukraine’s east. Meanwhile, an equally fierce battle is being waged for the hearts and minds of civilians on the Ukrainian side, many of whose loyalties hover between Kyiv and Moscow.

Russia Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Aug 15, 2017

How to Fix Ukraine’s Economy

By Mark Gitenstein and Jacques Tohme

It’s been more than three years since Ukrainians were driven in large measure by the rampant corruption in Ukraine to retake their country. Yet state-owned enterprises (SOEs)—the organs of systemic corruption and deterrence for western investment—remain in the hands of the same elites who drain these state treasures of their financial and material resources. Even […]

Central Europe Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Aug 11, 2017

Eastern Europe’s Illiberal Trends Bode Badly for Ukraine

By Oksana Bedratenko

A recent increase in illiberal trends in a number of Eastern European countries threatens to erode support for Ukraine in the region. Just as important, it may lead to disillusionment inside Ukraine, where reformers have drawn on the region’s democracy building experience as guidance for Ukraine’s own reforms. Immediately after the breakup of the Soviet […]

Central Europe Hungary

UkraineAlert

Aug 10, 2017

Correction Unnecessary

By John E. Herbst

Bloomberg View columnist Leonid Bershidsky is unhappy and he has been tweeting.  Specifically, he demands a correction to my August 8 post that criticized some of the points in his opinion piece arguing against sending defensive lethal weapons to Ukraine. He claims that he “did not argue” what I said; he has “no idea how” […]

Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Aug 9, 2017

Stanford program turns theory into practice in Ukraine and beyond

By Melinda Haring

Both Liakh and Sotnyk return to Kyiv with new ideas and a powerful network of experts and activists they can consult in the long struggle to transform Ukraine.

Civil Society Education

UkraineAlert

Aug 8, 2017

Why the Case Against Arming Ukraine Doesn’t Hold Water

By John E. Herbst

Armchair strategists have come out of the woodwork to explain why it would be a mistake for the United States to arm Ukraine. They argue that Russia is stronger than Ukraine and can outmatch any escalation, Moscow has a greater interest in Ukraine than Washington, and Ukraine’s government is corrupt and undeserving of such support. […]

Russia Ukraine
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