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

Latest analysis


UkraineAlert

Dec 22, 2022

Russia’s defeat is the top global priority for 2023

By
Oleksii Reznikov

Ensuring that the Russian invasion of Ukraine ends in defeat is vital for the international security system and must be the strategic priority for 2023, writes Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov.


Conflict


European Union


UkraineAlert

Dec 21, 2022

2022 REVIEW: Russia’s invasion has united Ukraine

By
Taras Kuzio

The February 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine was meant to extinguish Ukrainian statehood but Putin's plan has backfired disastrously and united Ukraine as the country fights for its right to exist, writes Taras Kuzio.


Civil Society


Conflict


UkraineAlert

Dec 20, 2022

The partition of Ukraine would only encourage Putin’s imperial ambitions

By
Benton Coblentz

Advocates of appeasement believe the best way to end the Russian invasion of Ukraine is by offering Ukrainian land in exchange for peace but this will only encourage Putin's imperial ambitions, writes Benton Coblentz.


Conflict


Disinformation


UkraineAlert

Dec 19, 2022

2022 REVIEW: Why has Vladimir Putin’s Ukraine invasion gone so badly wrong?

By
Peter Dickinson

Vladimir Putin hoped his invasion of Ukraine would result in a quick and historic victory. Instead, he ends 2022 with Russia's reputation as a military superpower in tatters. Why has the invasion of Ukraine gone so badly wrong?


Civil Society


Conflict


UkraineAlert

Dec 15, 2022

Memo to Macron: Russia doesn’t need security guarantees but Ukraine does

By
Peter Dickinson

French President Emmanuel Macron has been widely criticized for calling on Europe to offer Russia security guarantees at a time when the Kremlin is using fake security concerns to justify the invasion of Ukraine.


Conflict


Disinformation


UkraineAlert

Dec 15, 2022

Individual Russians must be held accountable for war crimes in Ukraine

By
Stanislav Aseyev

Unless steps are taken to hold individual Russians accountable for the war crimes they have committed in Ukraine we will witness similar atrocities elsewhere, warns Ukrainian author and journalist Stanislav Aseyev.


Conflict


Freedom and Prosperity


UkraineAlert

Dec 14, 2022

Vladimir Putin’s failing invasion is fueling the rise of Russia’s far right

By
Stanislav Shalunov

As Vladimir Putin's disastrous invasion continues to unravel, battlefield defeats in Ukraine are having a radicalizing effect on Russian domestic audiences and fueling the rise of the country's ultra-nationalist far right.


Conflict


Disinformation


UkraineAlert

Dec 13, 2022

Vladimir Putin: 2022 Loser of the Year

By
Peter Dickinson

Russian leader Vladimir Putin is the biggest loser of 2022. His disastrous decision to invade Ukraine has left Russia internationally isolated and shattered the country's reputation as a military superpower.


Belarus


Central Asia


UkraineAlert

Dec 12, 2022

Fresh challenges threaten to reverse Ukraine’s judicial reform progress

By
Mykhailo Zhernakov, Nestor Barchuk

Ukrainians are currently fighting against Russian invasion but far from the battlefield judicial reforms that hold the key to Ukraine’s transformation into a nation governed by the rule of law are at risk of unraveling.


Civil Society


Conflict


UkraineAlert

Dec 9, 2022

Zelenskyy urges special tribunal for Russian aggression against Ukraine

By
Peter Dickinson

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is urging the international community to establish a special tribunal for the crime of aggression in order to prosecute Russia’s political and military leadership.


Conflict


European Union

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.

Follow us on social media
and support our work

Content

UkraineAlert

Feb 17, 2017

Who’s Up and Who’s Down in Eastern Ukraine?

By Oleksandr Nykonorov and Volodymyr Yermolenko

The Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) and Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR) are self-proclaimed entities that emerged in spring 2014 in eastern Ukraine thanks to massive Russian support. Ukraine’s attempts to retake them in spring and summer 2014 were stopped by a full-scale Russian military offensive that August. This more or less fixed the demarcation line between […]

Russia Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Feb 15, 2017

Multiculturalism Is the Answer to Ukraine’s Identity Crisis

By Peter Dickinson

Celebrating diversity: that’s the official theme of the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest, which will take place in Kyiv this May. This is an inspired choice; Ukraine has been one of Europe’s most diverse and multicultural lands for centuries. Since the Soviet collapse, this organic multiculturalism has played a disappointingly minor role in Ukraine’s nation-building efforts. […]

Russia Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Feb 15, 2017

Arm Ukraine Now

By Alexander J. Motyl

The case against providing lethal weapons to Ukraine has rested on a simple argument: If the United States provides arms to Kyiv, Moscow will escalate the war in eastern Ukraine. The Kremlin would up the ante with even more arms or intensify its military pressure on Ukraine. According to this logic, since escalation benefits no […]

Russia Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Feb 9, 2017

What’s Behind the Flare-Up in Eastern Ukraine?

By Volodymyr Yermolenko and Tetyana Ogarkova

On January 29, the fighting in Avdiivka, a town in eastern Ukraine within Ukrainian government-controlled territory, seriously escalated. The fighting began close to the demarcation line and six kilometers north of Donetsk (see map), and continued until at least February 3. According to official reports, thirteen Ukrainian soldiers were killed and 93 were wounded since […]

Russia Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Feb 8, 2017

Six Outrageous Lies Russian Disinformation Peddled about Europe in 2016

By Jakub Janda and Ilyas Sharibzhanov

Russian disinformation is working overtime to undermine European democracies. Much of the disinformation in 2016 came from original Russian sources that presented poorly digested information designed to provoke and to push an agenda that the Kremlin finds favorable. It aims to disconnect ordinary European citizens from supranational EU institutions and national politicians. With key elections in […]

Germany Northern Europe

UkraineAlert

Feb 8, 2017

Women Held Up Half the Sky to Defend Ukraine

By Diane Francis

In China, women are poetically referred to as “half the sky.” During the most dangerous hours of Ukraine’s Revolution of Dignity, when tanks and water cannons and snipers were trained on protesters, roughly half of the Ukrainian activists were females of all ages. Now, the new film “Women of Maidan” beautifully portrays the critical role […]

Russia Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Feb 8, 2017

Ukraine’s Next Big Gas Deadline Is Two Years Away: Will It Be Ready?

By Oksana Bedratenko

The European gas market has become more integrated and more competitive since the 2009 gas crisis when Russia turned off the tap for nearly a week and Europe practically froze. Europe has increased the resilience of its gas system by building interconnections between pipelines, expanding its storage network, and diversifying gas supplies by creating infrastructure […]

Russia Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Feb 6, 2017

Why Trump Will Soon Put Putin on Notice

By Diane Francis

On February 1, military tough guy Mike Flynn, President Donald Trump’s National Security Advisor, put Iran “officially on notice” for testing a missile in violation of a UN resolution. By contrast, on January 31 the State Department issued a tepid statement condemning a murderous military assault on a Ukrainian town in the east without condemning […]

Russia Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Feb 6, 2017

Changes in Washington, Brussels, and Berlin: What Do They Mean for Kyiv?

By Andreas Umland

As US President Donald Trump introduces a new leadership style, political and economic crises play out in the EU, and tensions in Russia’s foreign and domestic affairs increase, the effects will be astutely felt in Ukraine—a country that has become a key battleground state in the confrontation between the world’s pro- and anti-Western forces. The […]

European Union Germany

UkraineAlert

Feb 6, 2017

The End of the Rose for Saakashvili

By Luis Navarro

Dynamic, revolutionary, modernizer, narcissist, opportunist: all of these are terms that have been used to describe Mikheil Saakashvili, the former president of Georgia and would-be Ukrainian leader. Over the course of a storied political career, all have been true to varying degrees. But what is true now is that Saakashvili has exceeded his expiration date […]

The Caucasus Ukraine