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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

Sep 11, 2025

China, India, and North Korea back Russia as changing global order takes shape

By
Katherine Spencer

Support from China, India, and North Korea for Russia’s war in Ukraine will allow the killing to continue while undermining Trump’s efforts to pressure the Kremlin into ending the invasion, writes Katherine Spencer.

China
Conflict


UkraineAlert

Sep 11, 2025

Fighting corruption strengthens Ukraine in the war against Russia

By
Matthew H. Murray

Ukraine’s efforts to combat corruption on the domestic front play a vital role in the country’s broader fight for national survival against Vladimir Putin’s resurgent Russian imperialism, writes Matthew H. Murray.

Civil Society
Conflict


UkraineAlert

Sep 11, 2025

Belarus hosts Russian war games as Putin’s drones probe Poland

By
Hanna Liubakova

On September 12, Belarus and Russia will begin their largest joint military exercises since the start of Putin’s Ukraine invasion, just two days after at least nineteen Russian drones penetrated neighboring Polish airspace, writes Hanna Liubakova.

Belarus
Conflict


UkraineAlert

Sep 9, 2025

What is the Coalition of the Willing actually willing to do in Ukraine?

By
Mykola Bielieskov

European troops in Ukraine could serve as a meaningful element within a broader deterrence package, but Coalition of the Willing leaders should focus on making the Ukrainian military strong enough to deter the Kremlin, writes Mykola Bielieskov.

Conflict
European Union


UkraineAlert

Sep 4, 2025

Ukrainian bombing campaign turns Russia’s sheer size into a weakness

By
David Kirichenko 

For centuries, Russia’s sheer size has been its greatest asset. Ukraine now intends to transform this vastness into a weakness with a long-range bombing campaign targeting Putin’s economically vital but vulnerable energy industry, writes David Kirichenko.

Conflict
Drones


UkraineAlert

Sep 3, 2025

Europe’s best security guarantee against Russia is the Ukrainian army

By
Elena Davlikanova, Yevhen Malik

With Europe militarily unprepared and deeply reluctant to confront the Kremlin, a strong Ukraine currently looks to be by far the most realistic deterrent against further Russian aggression, write Elena Davlikanova and Yevhenii Malik.

Conflict
Defense Policy


UkraineAlert

Sep 2, 2025

Putin’s failed summer offensive shatters the myth of inevitable Russian victory

By
Peter Dickinson

The failure of Putin’s summer offensive should help to debunk the persistent myth of inevitable Russian victory and persuade Western leaders to increase their support for the Ukrainian war effort, writes Peter Dickinson.

Conflict
Defense Policy


UkraineAlert

Sep 2, 2025

Hungary has alternative energy options but chooses to rely on Russia

By
Aura Sabadus

Ukraine’s recent strikes on the Kremlin’s Druzhba oil pipeline are not only an attack on Russia’s war economy. They are also a wake-up call for Hungarians highlighting the role being played by their country in the funding of Russia’s invasion, writes Aura Sabadus.

Conflict
Economic Sanctions


UkraineAlert

Aug 28, 2025

Putin wants to capture Ukraine’s crucial fortress belt without a fight

By
Mykola Bielieskov

As US-led efforts to end the Russian invasion of Ukraine struggle to gain momentum, Vladimir Putin’s latest territorial demands include the surrender of strategically vital and heavily fortified Ukrainian land in the east of the country, writes Mykola Bielieskov.

Conflict
Disinformation


UkraineAlert

Aug 28, 2025

Russia attacks Zelenskyy’s legitimacy to derail US-led Ukraine peace talks

By
Serhii Savelii

Moscow’s efforts to portray Zelenskyy as illegitimate fall apart when weighed against Ukraine’s Constitution and the country’s political practice, along with international precedents and legal tradition, writes Serhii Savelii.

Conflict
Democratic Transitions

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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, 2016

Established Political Parties Benefit from Ukraine’s New Reform

By Miriam Kosmehl and Andreas Umland

This month, Ukraine introduced state financing of political parties in the hopes that it will create a more transparent, equal, and democratic playing field for politicians and their organizations. But the process will not be as beneficial to Ukraine’s reform efforts as it could have been. In October 2015, the Ukrainian parliament adopted Law No. […]

Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Jul 20, 2016

How the GOP Abandons Ukraine

By Jeffrey Gedmin

When asked recently why he turned up in Moscow last December to help celebrate the tenth anniversary of RT, Michael Flynn rambled about wanting to deliver stern lectures to the Russians. The retired US Lt. Gen.—who now serves as foreign policy adviser to Republican nominee Donald J. Trump—was seated at a gala dinner next to […]

Russia Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Jul 20, 2016

Remembering the Former Soviet Union’s Top Investigative Journalist

By Anders Åslund

Car Bomb Kills Prominent Journalist Pavel Sheremet in Kyiv  It is hard to believe that Pavel Sheremet is dead because he was so full of life. He was an exuberant man who loved life and everything in it. A dinner with Pavel was always a wonderful and lively affair, and he enjoyed the food and […]

Belarus Russia

UkraineAlert

Jul 20, 2016

Turkey: Another US Intelligence Failure

By Stephen Blank

A less-well known but vital outcome of NATO’s Warsaw summit was the Alliance’s decision to create an intelligence and security division from among its existing organizations. This move is long overdue. There is a plethora of threats facing Europe and the United States, and yet the West has a record of intelligence failures that has […]

Russia Syria

UkraineAlert

Jul 19, 2016

How to Avoid Becoming Ukraine’s Most Unpopular Politician

By Mykhailo Kukhar and Alexei Sobchenko

Ukraine is a relatively young country. Its political traditions are still developing and its electorate can still be easily beguiled by every new leader who promises to bring the nation out of the economic misery it was immersed in after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Ukraine is still desperately poor, ranked among the poorest […]

Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Jul 19, 2016

Russia Faces a Darkening Future. Is There Any Way Out?

By David Satter

Editor’s Note: This article is an excerpt from Satter’s new book, The Less You Know, the Better You Sleep: Russia’s Road to Terrorism and Dictatorship Under Yeltsin and Putin. Satter will give a book reading at Politics & Prose in Washington on July 24 at 5 pm. The best future for Russia would be the […]

Russia

UkraineAlert

Jul 19, 2016

Tymoshenko and Kolomoyskyi Score Wins in Ukraine’s Special Elections

By Brian Mefford

Populism is on the rise in Ukraine, so it’s little surprise that Fatherland party leader Yulia Tymoshenko and oligarch Ihor Kolomoyskyi gained the most seats in Ukraine’s special parliamentary elections on July 17. Elections were held in seven districts across the country. Fatherland candidates won in Kherson and Poltava, while Kolomoyskyi’s candidate won in Volyn […]

Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Jul 18, 2016

Ukraine Needs to Abandon its Soviet Thinking Once and for All

By Basil A. Kalymon

Ukraine’s reform efforts continue to sputter on without any transformative results more than two years after former President Viktor Yanukovych fled to Moscow. The economy’s basic problems have not yet been addressed. It is still bogged down in its Soviet past, with populist forces making illusory promises that appeal to many voters’ Soviet-era mentality. The […]

Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Jul 18, 2016

How Ukraine Can Win the Information War in a Fact Free World

By Peter Dickinson

What media outlets do you trust? From the Brexit referendum and the US presidential race to Russia’s information war on Ukraine, it is becoming increasingly clear that we now live in a fact-free world where emotions reign supreme and truth is in the eye of the beholder. This trend first became apparent around the time […]

Russia Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Jul 13, 2016

New Generation of Digital Detectives Fight to Keep Russia Honest

By Eliot Higgins

Almost two years ago on July 17, 2014, a Buk missile downed Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 in eastern Ukraine, killing 298 passengers and their crew. The Russian government pushed evidence implying that a Ukrainian plane had shot down MH17, while the Dutch Safety Board concluded that a Buk missile caused the plane to break up […]

Russia Syria