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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.


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Latest analysis


UkraineAlert

Dec 17, 2018

How to Speak about Ukraine’s Future and Tymoshenko in the West

By
Andreas Umland

My recent article “What Would a Tymoshenko Presidency Mean?” caused indignation among numerous experts and journalists in Ukraine and indigestion among some in Washington. Obviously, there are a number of problems with Yulia Tymoshenko and her presidential bid, such as her leftish populist slogans and the financial sources behind her expensive campaign. Yet, the fact […]


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UkraineAlert

Dec 13, 2018

Is Russia About to Invade Ukraine?

By
Alexander J. Motyl

Vladimir Putin must be kicking himself. Four years ago, he could have invaded and seized most of Ukraine in a few weeks. Believing that Ukrainians were an “artificial” nation led by “fascists,” however, he figured an invasion was unnecessary and the state would collapse on its own. Now, Ukrainians are daily demonstrating their desire to […]


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UkraineAlert

Dec 12, 2018

Hunger for Change in Ukraine, but Not Much on the Menu

By
Ruslan Minich

On billboards throughout Ukraine is the phrase, “The president is the servant of the people.” But is this the teaser for a TV series with the same title—or a serious political campaign for its star, who may or may not be running for president? On the most viewed series in Ukraine, Servant of the People, […]


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UkraineAlert

Dec 12, 2018

Why Pro-Russian Candidates Won’t Win Ukraine’s 2019 Elections

By
Taras Kuzio

Those who believe Ukraine has not fundamentally changed since the launch of Russia’s military aggression are dead wrong. In fact, the 2019 elections will clearly illustrate that pro-Russian candidates have not only lost significant support, they will barely win any national offices. Pro-Russian candidates are hampered from achieving success in the 2019 parliamentary and presidential […]


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UkraineAlert

Dec 11, 2018

How to Weaken Putin’s Hand (The Answer Isn’t What You Think)

By
Andreas Umland

Ukraine is making international headlines again. Conflict in the Black Sea, war in eastern Ukraine, new anti-corruption institutions, and the imminent independence of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church have been widely reported and hotly discussed. But one important topic has gone largely unnoticed in the West—Ukraine’s ongoing local governance reform. The transformation of Ukraine’s administrative structure […]


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UkraineAlert

Dec 11, 2018

Ukraine’s Maidan Opposition Is Finally Getting Organized, but Will It Make Any Difference?

By
Melinda Haring

On December 7, about two hundred fifty Ukrainians gathered in Kyiv for the launch of a new social movement that looks set to become Ukraine’s first liberal political party. People Matter is basing its platform on minimizing the role of government in the economy and reorienting the entire state around the concept of service; in American […]


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UkraineAlert

Dec 3, 2018

Anti-Corruption Reformer Ready for Round Two

By
Viola Gienger

Olena Tregub spent more than two years working around the clock to help revitalize her moribund government ministry in Ukraine. As director of international aid coordination for the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade, her mission was to bring some transparency to $12 billion of foreign assistance pouring into the country after 2014. Tracking assistance, […]


UkraineAlert

Dec 1, 2018

From the Azov Sea to Washington DC: How Russophobia Became Russia’s Leading Export

By
Peter Dickinson

Vladimir Putin had a simple explanation for the wave of international condemnation that engulfed Moscow in the wake of Russia’s November 25 Black Sea attack on the Ukrainian Navy. According to the Kremlin leader, it was all Ukraine’s doing. “Kyiv is actively stirring up anti-Russian sentiment,” he lamented. “That’s all they have—and it works.” This […]


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UkraineAlert

Nov 30, 2018

How the West Got Martial Law in Ukraine Totally Wrong

By
John E. Herbst

The past several days have been historic ones in Ukraine’s development as a sovereign and democratic nation. Moscow’s unprovoked attack on and seizure of three Ukrainian ships in the Black Sea on November 25 began this process. This attack represents a serious escalation of Kremlin aggression because it was done openly by regular Russian military […]


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UkraineAlert

Nov 30, 2018

What Would a Tymoshenko Presidency Mean?

By
Andreas Umland

Many Western observers would like to see a change in Ukrainian leadership following the 2019 presidential and parliamentary elections. Some would prefer to see a young MP from parliament’s Euro-Optimists group become president; others hope the country’s next leader will come from one of Ukraine’s new parties, such as Democratic Alliance or Power of the […]


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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.

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Content

UkraineAlert

Jul 26, 2017

How to Hold Facebook and Google Responsible for Fake News

By Klára Votavová and Jakub Janda

Online platforms have become the world’s most influential editors-in-chief. According to a 2016 Reuters Digital News Report, 51 percent of people access online news through social media, allowing these platforms to curate their news intake through personalized algorithms. These platforms have simultaneously gained significant economic leverage: experts estimate that in 2016, the two most influential […]

UkraineAlert

Jul 24, 2017

Why the US Keeps Losing the Fight against Disinformation

By Maxim Eristavi

Journalists and activists in Eastern Europe have been fighting modern propaganda for years. It is time to deploy the lessons of those battles to newsrooms in Washington and beyond. I’ve been exposing organized lies professionally for years now. It started when propaganda took over the Russian-state newsroom in Moscow I was managing in 2013. When […]

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UkraineAlert

Jul 24, 2017

Let’s Make America Great Again by Making Washington Transparent

By Ariel Cohen

The testimonies of Donald Trump, Jr., Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort before Congressional investigational committees will be closed to public. Yet they are the highlights of a political crisis that may be deeper than Watergate. In a made-for-TV series, the intrigue connects Washington power politics and espionage with a family saga, and for some comic […]

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UkraineAlert

Jul 24, 2017

Rebuttal: Ukraine’s Supreme Court Competition Is a Model Process

By Sergii Koziakov

The resetting of Ukraine’s highest court is one of the cornerstones of judicial reform in the country and will influence the whole judicial system. In his recent article, Josh Cohen claims that Ukraine’s High Qualification Commission of Judges (HQCJ) is impeding the process to build a new Supreme Court, but this is simply false. The […]

Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Jul 20, 2017

Why Congress Should Pass the Russia Sanctions Bill

By Polina Kovaleva

Over the weekend, Congress reached an agreement on a new Russia sanctions package, though it has been overshadowed by the investigation into connections between President Donald Trump’s administration and Russia. Although the Senate easily passed a strong sanctions bill in June to punish Russia for its aggression in Ukraine and annexation of Crimea, the White House […]

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UkraineAlert

Jul 19, 2017

The Only Winning Strategy for Ukraine

By Diane Francis

Imagine if, on June 14, Ukraine launched its first independent anti-corruption court and began hearing dozens of cases against people in high places. Imagine if, by mid-July, several oligarchs and public officials were convicted of corruption, and their assets confiscated. Unfortunately, neither are true. A June 14 deadline for the court imposed by the IMF […]

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UkraineAlert

Jul 18, 2017

Kadyrov Flaunts Chechnya’s de Facto Independence

By Dylan Myles-Primakoff

The July 18 episode of HBO’s “Real Sports” features a surprising interview subject—Ramzan Kadyrov, the head of Russia’s Chechen Republic, in his first interview with a Western journalist since 2014. While the interview’s main theme is Kadyrov’s use of mixed martial arts as a political instrument, an excerpt released before the episode aired focused on […]

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UkraineAlert

Jul 18, 2017

MH17 Plane Crash: Completing a Circle after Three Years

By Michael Bociurkiw

The first relative of one of the passengers of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 that I ever met was Jordan Withers. Thanks to the BBC, we were brought together for the making of a documentary into one of the worst civil aviation disasters in modern history. That disaster was the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, […]

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UkraineAlert

Jul 17, 2017

Twelve Myths about Change in Ukraine

By Alexander J. Motyl

Most Ukrainians will tell you that “nothing has changed” since the Euromaidan Revolution. Meanwhile, most Ukrainian analysts bemoan that Ukraine’s elites are resisting change and that, unless Ukraine changes more quickly, the country will backtrack and be lost. And everyone seems to agree that no change is possible unless corruption is fully eliminated. These views […]

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UkraineAlert

Jul 14, 2017

Poland’s Revolutionary Lessons for Ukraine

By Krzysztof Stanowski

In the last thirty years, Ukraine has undergone three revolutions: the Revolution on Granite (1990), the Orange Revolution (2004-2005), and the Revolution of Dignity (2013-2014)—each about different values. The first one was about the right to independence, the second about fair elections, and the third about the right to choose the country’s geopolitical direction. For […]

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