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’s Least Sexy Reform Is Transforming Villages with New Roads, Police, and Even a Telescope

UkraineAlert
May 12, 2026

Ukrainian long-range drones are turning Russia’s size into a weakness

By
Peter Dickinson

Ukraine is waging a strategic bombing campaign of deep strikes across the Russian Federation that aims to exploit Russia’s colossal size and transform it from a key strength into a fatal weakness, writes Peter Dickinson.

Conflict
Defense Technologies

Ukraine’s Least Sexy Reform Is Transforming Villages with New Roads, Police, and Even a Telescope

UkraineAlert
May 1, 2026

Europe needs Ukraine as it looks to counter growing Russian threat

By
Zahar Hryniv

More than a year since Trump returned to the White House, it is clear that Europe needs to develop its own strategic vision for the continent’s defense. It is equally apparent that Ukraine must be central to this vision, writes Zahar Hryniv.

Conflict
Defense Industry

Ukraine’s Least Sexy Reform Is Transforming Villages with New Roads, Police, and Even a Telescope

UkraineAlert
Apr 30, 2026

Zelenskyy refuses Russian demands to surrender Ukraine’s vital fortress belt

By
Marc Goedemans

Ukraine rejects Russian demands to withdraw from northern Donetsk province as part of a peace deal and insists the region’s fortress belt is absolutely indispensable for the defense of the country as a whole, writes Marc Goedemans.

Conflict
Defense Policy

Latest analysis

UkraineAlert

Sep 20, 2022

Weaponizing education: Russia targets schoolchildren in occupied Ukraine

By
Oleksandr Pankieiev

The Kremlin is attempting to impose the russification of Ukrainian schoolchildren in occupied areas as part of Moscow's campaign to extinguish Ukrainian statehood and eradicate all traces of Ukrainian national identity.


Civil Society

Conflict


UkraineAlert

Sep 18, 2022

Most multinationals remain in Russia and fund Putin’s invasion of Ukraine

By
Diane Francis

Despite much coverage of multinational corporations leaving the Russian market in protect over the invasion of Ukraine, in reality the majority of international companies have yet to fully exit Russia.


Conflict

Economy & Business


UkraineAlert

Sep 17, 2022

Putin’s Russian Empire is collapsing like its Soviet predecessor

By
Taras Kuzio

Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine was meant to extinguish the Ukrainian state once and for all. Instead, Russian influence in the post-Soviet region is in danger of receding to levels not witnessed in hundreds of years.


Belarus

Central Asia


UkraineAlert

Sep 15, 2022

Putin’s self-defeating invasion turns southern Ukrainians away from Russia

By
Michael Druckman

Putin framed his Ukraine invasion as a crusade to rescue Russian-speaking Ukrainians but polling data indicates that the war has turned traditionally Russian-speaking regions of Ukraine decisively against the Kremlin.


Civil Society

Conflict


UkraineAlert

Sep 14, 2022

The complex reality behind Vladimir Putin’s nuclear blackmail in Ukraine

By
Suriya Evans-Pritchard Jayanti

Putin's recent efforts to blackmail European leaders by threatening a nuclear disaster at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) in Ukraine reflect Russia's use of fear and energy as foreign policy tools.


Conflict

Disinformation


UkraineAlert

Sep 13, 2022

Ukrainian victory shatters Russia’s reputation as a military superpower

By
Andriy Zagorodnyuk

The stunning success of Ukraine’s counteroffensive in the Kharkiv region has exposed the rotten reality behind Russia’s military superpower reputation and convinced many that a decisive Ukrainian victory is now possible.


Conflict

Corruption


UkraineAlert

Sep 13, 2022

Ukraine is winning but needs weapons to end Russia’s genocidal occupation

By
Kristina Hook

Ukraine's recent Kharkiv counteroffensive was a major breakthrough but the country's Western partners must now deliver more weapons in order to achieve a decisive victory and end Russia's genocidal occupation.


Conflict

Disinformation


UkraineAlert

Sep 11, 2022

Russia is facing defeat in Putin’s gas war against the European Union

By
Aura Sabadus

Vladimir Putin has declared an energy war against the European Union but there are growing signs that the Russian dictator may have overplayed his hand, writes Aura Sabadus.


Conflict

Energy Markets & Governance


UkraineAlert

Sep 9, 2022

Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine demands special international tribunal

By
Olena Khomenko

Ukraine is urging the international community to establish a special tribunal in order to prosecute Russia for the crime of aggression and bring an end to the impunity that is fueling the Putin regime's criminal foreign policy.


Conflict

European Union


UkraineAlert

Sep 8, 2022

There can be no compromise between Russian genocide and Ukrainian freedom

By
Peter Dickinson

Calls for a negotiated peace settlement in Ukraine fail to recognize that Russia's imperial ambitions and the Kremlin's genocidal objectives render any kind of compromise incompatible with Ukrainian statehood.


Conflict

Democratic Transitions

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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’s Least Sexy Reform Is Transforming Villages with New Roads, Police, and Even a Telescope

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’s Least Sexy Reform Is Transforming Villages with New Roads, Police, and Even a Telescope

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’s Least Sexy Reform Is Transforming Villages with New Roads, Police, and Even a Telescope

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

Jun 28, 2017

Ukraine’s Least Sexy Reform Is Transforming Villages with New Roads, Police, and Even a Telescope

By Ruslan Minich

It used to be dark, and children had to jump from stone to stone to get to school. Now, the roads are smooth and brightly lit. Water flows from the mountains by gravity, and thus is free of charge and available to everyone. This is what the residents of southwestern Ukraine’s Poliana village say decentralization […]

Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Jun 26, 2017

What Happens if Russia Turns Up the Heat Again in Ukraine?

By Andreas Umland

Will the low-intensity war in the Donbas continue its current course in the coming years, or will Moscow turn up the heat there, as it occasionally does? It’s hard to say. “It all comes down to geopolitics and what Putin wants to do,” said Ihor Kozak, an independent Canadian defense and security expert who visited […]

Russia Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Jun 26, 2017

How History Will Remember Vladimir Putin

By Stephen Blank

To paraphrase Pravda in 1929, Putin is the Stalin of today. Nobody since Stalin’s death has achieved such longevity or uncontested power over Russia as Putin has. Nevertheless, tomorrow he may be remembered as the Brezhnev of today, for he has presided over a galloping stagnation of the economy and public morality. At the same […]

Russia Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Jun 26, 2017

In Ukraine, Health Security Is National Security

By Olena Kucheruk and Alex T. Johnson

Three years after its invasion of Ukraine, Russia continues to pummel the country with cyberattacks, ruthless propaganda, and Grad missiles. But Ukraine’s dysfunctional institutions, especially its health care system, undermine Ukraine’s national security as well. Policies to reduce the enormous stress on Ukraine’s military and government alone ignore the delivery of core services. Without those […]

Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Jun 23, 2017

Memo to President Trump: It’s Not “The Ukraine” Anymore

By Peter Dickinson

The first meeting between Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and US President Donald Trump on June 20 was widely hailed as a small but significant victory for Ukraine, signaling continued American support at a time when many fear Ukraine’s struggle with Russia is in danger of becoming a forgotten war. The only fly in the ointment […]

Russia Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Jun 22, 2017

Experts Urge Congress and Trump to Arm Ukraine

By Melinda Haring

A bipartisan task force made up of former US defense officials, ambassadors, and security experts renewed calls for the United States to give lethal defensive weapons to Ukraine. On June 21, the National Security Task Force of the Friends of Ukraine Network urged the United States to provide a range of weapons, intelligence, and training. […]

Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Jun 21, 2017

Russia, Not Ukraine, Is Serial Violator of Ceasefire Agreement

By John E. Herbst

Like many articles and analyses of the Minsk process, “Ukrainian Military Progress Could Violate Minsk Peace Process” requires additional analysis on the geopolitical underpinnings and implications of the issue at hand. Without this context, it is difficult to make sense of any facts presented. The context is this: Moscow is conducting the war in Ukraine’s […]

Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Jun 20, 2017

Will Ukraine Finally Pass Land Reform?

By Oksana Bedratenko

Ukraine still needs a powerful push to finally shrug off the 2014-2015 crisis, which caused its economy to contract by 16.5 percent. The IMF prescribed anticorruption reform, privatization, pension reform, and allowing private sales of land to give Ukraine that boost. It is important to move fast with these reforms for two reasons: first, elections […]

Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Jun 19, 2017

What Do Russians Think of Ukrainians, and Vice Versa?

By Taras Kuzio

Vladimir Putin’s decade long media campaigns turned Russians against Ukrainians and the Ukrainian state prior to his 2014 annexation of Crimea. The divorce between Russia and Ukraine which began with the disintegration of the USSR gained momentum after the 2004 Orange Revolution. Putin’s authoritarian and great power nationalistic regime fanned ethnic Russian nationalism, turning Russians […]

Russia Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Jun 19, 2017

What Will Ukraine’s Next Big Reform Be?

By Maria Repko

The IMF has told Ukraine that it must push through a number of reforms before it can receive any additional funds. Currently, the major effort is pension reform, something both the government and the IMF are focused on. Pensions account for 11 percent of GDP and 26 percent of public expenditures. Luckily, pension reform—unlike land […]

Ukraine
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