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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

May 17, 2020

From Stalin to Putin: The Crimean Tatars face a new era of Kremlin persecution

By
Polina Sadovskaya and Veronika Pfeilschifter

As the Crimean Tatar community marks the seventy-sixth anniversary of their Soviet deportation, an entire generation faces the prospect of another year living in terror at home in Russian-occupied Crimea or forced into exile.

Conflict
Human Rights


UkraineAlert

May 15, 2020

Why I’m optimistic Georgia’s reforms can change Ukraine

By
Mikheil Saakashvili

Former Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili explains why he believes his experience reforming Georgia can help Ukraine accomplish its own post-Soviet transition towards European prosperity.

Democratic Transitions
Political Reform


UkraineAlert

May 13, 2020

US still determined to block Putin’s pet pipeline project

By
Diane Francis

Vladimir Putin hasn’t given up on his grand strategy to dominate European gas markets but the US remains committed to preventing Russia from completing the strategically vital Nord Stream 2 pipeline to Germany.

Eastern Europe
Geopolitics & Energy Security


UkraineAlert

May 13, 2020

Ukraine approves crucial anti-oligarch banking law

By
Anders Åslund

Ukrainian MPs have adopted legislation to prevent former owners regaining banks nationalized during recent reforms. The move is a blow to Ukrainian oligarch Ihor Kolomoiskiy and paves the way for a new IMF program.

Corruption
Economy & Business


UkraineAlert

May 12, 2020

Putin’s Russia has weaponized World War II

By
Volodymyr Yelchenko

Vladimir Putin has turned the Red Army role in WWII into a victory cult designed to rebuild post-Soviet Russia’s national pride and provide justification for Moscow’s aggressive foreign policy in Ukraine and beyond.

Conflict
Eastern Europe


UkraineAlert

May 12, 2020

Can Saakashvili rescue Ukraine’s reform agenda?

By
Peter Dickinson

President Zelenskyy has appointed former Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili to lead Ukraine’s National Reform Council. What might this appointment mean for the country’s stuttering reform agenda?

Democratic Transitions
Political Reform


UkraineAlert

May 12, 2020

Zelenskyy’s spring 2020 purge targets reformers

By
Victor Tregubov

Ukraine’s President Zelenskyy won election one year ago by promising to end decades of government corruption, but a spring 2020 purge of leading Ukrainian reformers raises grave doubts over the country’s future direction.

Democratic Transitions
Rule of Law


UkraineAlert

May 11, 2020

Enough already

By
Melinda Haring

There are other troubling signs on the horizon. Reformers in Kyiv worry that a revanche is underway and civil service, medical, anti-corruption, and fiscal reforms are all under attack.

Political Reform
Rule of Law


UkraineAlert

May 9, 2020

Time for Europe to stop fighting over World War II

By
Nataliya Popovych and Volodymyr Sheiko

As the world marks the seventy-fifth anniversary of the Second World War, the conflict continues to loom large in the global imagination but there is no consensus about the conflict in Europe, creating challenges for the future of European integration.

Europe & Eurasia
European Union


UkraineAlert

May 7, 2020

US accuses Russia of “falsifying WWII history”

By
Peter Dickinson

A strongly-worded new US joint statement issued together with foreign ministers from across Central and Eastern Europe takes aim at Russian attempts to rewrite history and sanitize the Soviet role in WWII.

Central Europe
Disinformation

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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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