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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

The German-Russian Relationship: It’s Complicated

UkraineAlert
Sep 30, 2025

Putin’s dream of demilitarizing Ukraine has turned into his worst nightmare

By
Peter Dickinson

Putin had hoped to demilitarize and decapitate the Ukrainian state, but his self-defeating invasion has inadvertently created the militarily powerful and fiercely independent Ukraine he feared most of all, writes Peter Dickinson.

Conflict
Defense Technologies

The German-Russian Relationship: It’s Complicated

UkraineAlert
Oct 2, 2025

Drone superpower Ukraine is teaching NATO how to defend against Russia

By
David Kirichenko

Ukraine’s unrivaled experience of drone warfare makes it a key partner for NATO and an indispensable ally in the defense of Europe as the continent faces up to the mounting threat posed by an expansionist Russia, writes David Kirichenko.

Conflict
Defense Technologies

The German-Russian Relationship: It’s Complicated

UkraineAlert
Oct 14, 2025

Russian strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure are a European problem

By
Aura Sabadus

Russia’s strikes on Ukrainian energy infrastructure are no longer just a Ukrainian problem. Moscow’s bombing campaign will become a wider European issue unless more support is offered to Kyiv, writes Aura Sabadus.

Conflict
Drones

Latest analysis

UkraineAlert

Jun 3, 2022

Imperial myths and genocidal realities: 100 days of Putin’s Ukraine War

By
Nestor Barchuk

Putin’s Ukraine war relies on a series of propaganda myths that reflect modern Russia’s failure to break with its imperialistic past. If Europe wants to achieve a lasting peace, it must work toward a post-imperial Russia.

Conflict
Democratic Transitions


UkraineAlert

May 31, 2022

Memo to Henry Kissinger: Appeasing Putin means enabling genocide

By
Stephen Blank

Appeasing Russia will not end the war in Ukraine or secure peace in our time. On the contrary, it will embolden Putin, prolong Ukraine’s pain, weaken the West, and destabilize the entire world, writes Stephen Blank.

Conflict
Disinformation


UkraineAlert

May 30, 2022

Now is the right time to launch a Digital Marshall Plan for Ukraine 

By
Anatoly Motkin

As the world explores the challenges of rebuilding Ukraine, one smart option may be to initiate a Digital Marshall Plan that will play to Ukraine’s existing tech strengths while securing the country’s modernization.

Conflict
Cybersecurity


UkraineAlert

May 27, 2022

South Ukraine holds the key to Putin’s dreams of a new Russian Empire

By
Taras Kuzio

The biggest European battles since WWII are currently raging in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region but the ultimate outcome of the Russo-Ukrainian War is likely to be decided hundreds of miles to the south.

Civil Society
Conflict


UkraineAlert

May 27, 2022

Ukraine’s sports stars aim to provide nation with a wartime morale boost

By
Mark Temnycky

Ukraine’s national football team will take on Scotland in a 2022 World Cup playoff match on June 1 in Glasgow as they seek to provide their compatriots back home with a much-needed wartime morale boost.

Conflict
Resilience & Society


UkraineAlert

May 24, 2022

Putin’s Mariupol Massacre is one of the 21st century’s worst war crimes

By
Paul Niland

The Russian destruction of Mariupol ranks among the gravest crimes against humanity of the twenty-first century and sends a clear message to the international community that can be no compromise peace with Putin.

Conflict
Democratic Transitions


UkraineAlert

May 24, 2022

The Putin puzzle: Why is the Russian dictator so obsessed with Ukraine?

By
Bohdan Vitvitsky

Vladimir Putin has sought to justify his invasion of Ukraine by claiming the country has no right to exist but in reality modern Ukraine enjoys a level of democratic legitimacy that far exceeds his own authoritarian regime.

Civil Society
Conflict


UkraineAlert

May 22, 2022

Centuries of Russian oppression have forged Ukraine’s remarkable resilience

By
Pete Shmigel

Centuries of traumatic experience with the horrors of Russian imperialism have shaped today’s Ukraine in ways that may actually contribute to Putin’s defeat and help Ukrainians to build a better future for their country.

Civil Society
Conflict


UkraineAlert

May 21, 2022

Appeasement is the worst possible policy for both Ukraine and Russia

By
Dennis Soltys

Western advocates of appeasement in Ukraine such as French President Emmanuel Macron fail to appreciate the deep-rooted imperial ambitions underpinning Vladimir Putin’s campign to extinguish Ukrainian independence.

Conflict
Democratic Transitions


UkraineAlert

May 18, 2022

Putin’s Black Sea blockade leaves millions facing global famine

By
Andriy Zagorodnyuk

Russia’s blockade of Ukraine’s Black Sea ports is strangling the country’s economy and also threatening to spark a global food security crisis by preventing Ukrainian agricultural exports from reaching international markets.

Conflict
Economic Sanctions

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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

The German-Russian Relationship: It’s Complicated

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

The German-Russian Relationship: It’s Complicated

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

The German-Russian Relationship: It’s Complicated

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

Sep 6, 2016

The German-Russian Relationship: It’s Complicated

By Andreas Umland

There’s a growing perception in Germany that the Minsk ceasefire agreements may never be implemented and the conflict in Ukraine will continue to grind on. To examine the origins and nature of the conflict as well as its possible solution and the role Bavaria may play in these affairs, the German-Ukrainian NGO Kyiv Dialogue held […]

Germany
Russia

UkraineAlert

Sep 6, 2016

How Xi and Putin Humiliated Obama at the G-20

By Anders Åslund

On September 4-5, the G-20 held its annual summit in Hangzhou, China, President Xi Jinping’s home. G-20 summits tend to be meaningless, but this one appears to have been outright harmful. The signature event was when President Barack Obama’s Air Force One was not met with a staircase, and it went downhill from there. During […]

China
Russia

UkraineAlert

Sep 6, 2016

The Top Ten Things Ukraine’s Parliament Needs to Do This Fall

By Olena Halushka

Over the last two and a half years, Ukraine has channeled the energy of the Euromaidan protests into building a new state, and has achieved a number of major accomplishments. However, much more remains be done. The delay in implementing crucial reforms is equivalent to stopping halfway, while the slow rate of change is already […]

Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Sep 1, 2016

Paul Manafort’s Ukrainian Legacy

By Sergii Leshchenko

I have seen Paul Manafort twice in my life. The first time was in 2007 during a Ukrainian lunch at Morosani Hotel in Davos, Switzerland, where Viktor Yanukovych came to speak. The second time was at a solemn reception in honor of Yanukovych’s 2010 inauguration at the Ukrainian House in Kyiv; Manfort arrived with oligarch […]

Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Aug 31, 2016

Anti-Corruption Cases Are Finally Moving Forward in Ukraine

By Adrian Karatnycky

Something is stirring in Ukraine’s war on corruption. Since the Maidan protests of 2013-14 toppled the regime of former President Viktor Yanukovych and revealed the details of the criminality and venality of his inner circle, attacking corruption has been a focal point of public expectations. Important progress has been made on key reforms. Under the […]

Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Aug 31, 2016

Russia and Turkey: Rapprochement and Its Implications

By John E. Herbst

The rapprochement between Russia and Turkey is a significant geopolitical development that increases the leverage of each nation. Where the interests of Moscow and Ankara do not conflict, their new relationship will be useful to both. Yet their different interests limit the significance of the new amity.

Russia
Turkey

UkraineAlert

Aug 29, 2016

Have Ukraine’s Reforms Stalled?

By Anders Åslund

Few Ukrainians realize how impressive their economic reforms were in 2015. The question today is whether that reform wave will continue, or has come to a halt. The slashing of energy subsidies by 10 percent of GDP by unifying energy prices from 2014 to 2016 was most important. As a consequence, Ukraine’s public expenditures fell […]

Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Aug 29, 2016

E-Declaration—and Ukraine’s Anti-Corruption Strategy—in Jeopardy

By Josh Cohen

A key element of Ukraine’s anti-corruption agenda is at a crossroads—and whether it is implemented on August 31 will indicate Kyiv’s commitment to reform. In October 2014, a new law requiring Ukrainian public officials to file an electronic declaration disclosing all of their financial assets was passed by parliament. This e-declaration law mandates that officials […]

Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Aug 29, 2016

Three Mythologies of European Security

By Stephen Blank

Samuel Johnson famously told his biographer James Boswell, “Clear your mind of cant.” In thinking about European security, we should do so, too.

Russia
Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Aug 26, 2016

How One University Defied Putin and His Armed Mob

By Melinda Haring

On July 7, 2014, Russian-backed separatists entered Donetsk and occupied four dormitories at Donetsk National University; armed gunmen expelled students from their rooms in the middle of the night. Nine days later, the separatists seized the entire university. During that summer, separatists stole at least seventeen university vehicles and converted student dorms into barracks for […]

Russia
Ukraine
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