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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

Mar 22, 2020

Ukraine urgently needs a new IMF agreement

By
Anders Åslund

Ukraine is facing major economic turmoil as a result of poor political decisions in the midst of an unfolding global crisis sparked by the coronavirus pandemic. The country now urgently needs to secure a new IMF agreement, argues Anders Åslund.


Economy & Business


International Financial Institutions


UkraineAlert

Mar 19, 2020

Saving Ukraine’s economy from the coronavirus crash

By
Yuriy Gorodnichenko

The Ukrainian economy is facing a perfect storm of coronavirus pressures as exports plummet and the domestic economy grinds to a halt. How can Ukraine mitigate the worst of the unfolding global crisis?


Coronavirus


Economy & Business


UkraineAlert

Mar 19, 2020

The Azov Regiment has not depoliticized

By
Oleksiy Kuzmenko

The Azov Regiment began life in 2014 as part of Ukraine's makeshift volunteer army and soon earned a reputation for far-right ties. The regiment has since been incorporated into the National Guard, but has it really cut its political associations?


Nationalism


Ukraine


UkraineAlert

Mar 18, 2020

Living next door to a superpower: How Canada’s experience can help Ukraine

By
Roman Waschuk

As Ukraine struggles to find a route towards peaceful coexistence with its powerful Russian neighbor, Kyiv politicians could learn from Canada's own experience of living next door to a global superpower.


Politics & Diplomacy


Russia


UkraineAlert

Mar 18, 2020

Cruz vows to thwart Russian bid to save Putin’s pipeline

By
Diane Francis

Russia is attempting to sidestep American sanctions designed to block the completion of an important new energy pipeline that bypasses Ukraine, but US Senator Ted Cruz has said he remains committed to stopping the project permanently.


Energy & Environment


Geopolitics & Energy Security


UkraineAlert

Mar 17, 2020

Ukraine’s horrible, no good, very bad month just got worse

By
Melinda Haring

Ukraine is having a bad month, and it only seems to be getting worse.


Democratic Transitions


Rule of Law


UkraineAlert

Mar 16, 2020

Ukraine’s pro-Russian MPs plot new front with Putin

By
Bohdan Nahaylo

Ukraine's pro-Russian political forces have been in retreat since 2014, but as the world focuses on the coronavirus crisis, Kremlin-friendly Ukrainian MPs are planning new initiatives with their Moscow colleagues.


Conflict


Russia


UkraineAlert

Mar 14, 2020

Ukraine agrees to dialogue with Russian-led republics

By
Peter Dickinson

Ukrainian officials this week agreed to begin talks with representatives of Russian-occupied eastern Ukraine, marking a significant policy departure following six years of refusals to enter into direct dialogue with the breakaway regions.


Conflict


Peacekeeping and Peacebuilding


UkraineAlert

Mar 13, 2020

Six years of war fail to cure Putin’s Ukraine delusions

By
Taras Kuzio

How do you make peace with an adversary who openly questions your right to exist? This is the challenge facing Ukraine as it seeks to end a war with Russia while confronting old imperial prejudices that continue to influence Russian policy-making.


Conflict


Nationalism


UkraineAlert

Mar 12, 2020

Diaspora deputies: Should Ukraine’s global community have a voice in parliament?

By
Andrej Lushnycky

Ukraine's multi-million strong global diaspora has long been a vocal voice of support for the motherland – is it now time to offer the diaspora a greater role in the development of Ukraine through parliamentary representation?


Democratic Transitions


Ukraine

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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

Mar 9, 2017

The Fight for Justice Is the Fight for Ukraine’s Future

By Taras Shevchenko

Attempts to implement judicial reform in Ukraine in 2014 and 2015 have had no impact on the public’s level of trust in the judiciary; as of November 2016, four out of five Ukrainians did not trust the judicial branch. Foreign investors have a similar attitude; in a September 2016 poll, investors mentioned the judiciary as […]

Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Mar 8, 2017

Springtime for NATO in the North

By Aaron Korewa

After the Russian attack on Georgia in 2008, a joke gained some popularity in Finland. It went like this: Vladimir Putin lands at Helsinki airport and proceeds to passport control. “Name?” asks the border guard. “Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin,” answers the Russian president. “Occupation?” asks the border guard. “No, just visiting,” answers Putin. After the war […]

NATO Northern Europe

UkraineAlert

Mar 8, 2017

Ukraine’s Got Less Than a Month to Clean Up Highest Court

By Halya Coynash

By the end of Viktor Yanukovych’s presidency in February 2014, virtually all vestiges of judicial independence had been eroded in Ukraine, together with any public confidence in the justice system. Three years later, only a small number of the most corrupt judges have lost their posts. It is rightly difficult to dismiss judges, but it […]

Europe & Eurasia Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Mar 7, 2017

Ukraine’s Rails, Roads, and Ports Throttle Economic Recovery

By Oksana Bedratenko

Ukraine’s favorable location gives the country immense potential as a regional transit hub. The country’s infrastructure, however, is in such a bad shape that it is not only unable to service international traffic, but has difficulties meeting the economy’s everyday needs. Following two years of GDP decline, Ukraine finally demonstrated signs of economic recovery in […]

Europe & Eurasia Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Mar 2, 2017

Ukraine Is Sliding Back, Sergii Leshchenko Warns

By Melinda Haring

Anticorruption reform in Ukraine appeared far more promising just a year ago, said Sergii Leshchenko in a March 1 telephone interview from Kyiv. “We are sliding back,” he said definitively. The thirty-six-year old member of parliament, a former deputy editor at Ukrayinska Pravda and one of President Petro Poroshenko’s most outspoken critics, wants the West to […]

Russia Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Mar 2, 2017

Why Ukraine Needs Another Court System Now

By Josh Cohen

Since the Euromaidan, Ukraine has achieved some notable anticorruption successes. The National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU), established in 2015 to target high level crimes committed by Ukraine’s corrupt political class, has demonstrated a high level of independence and has not hesitated to target the senior officials, judges, and state enterprise managers who previously possessed de facto […]

Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Mar 1, 2017

Not the Right Way to Bring Yanukovych to Trial

By Halya Coynash

The Kremlin is well known for pulling former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych out of hiding for its own purposes. Now Ukraine’s leaders have been accused of using Yanukovych as an excuse to push legislation that may have dangerous repercussions for Ukraine’s justice system—while not necessarily bringing Yanukovych and his cronies any closer to justice. Yury […]

Russia Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Feb 28, 2017

Putin Learns the Hard Way that Crimean Crime Does Not Pay

By Peter Dickinson

Ever since the stunning Russian takeover of Crimea in early 2014, it has become popular to regard Russian President Vladimir Putin as some kind of geopolitical genius. The international media regularly depicts him as a James Bond-style supervillain, always a few steps ahead of his hapless Western opponents as he determines the fate of the […]

Russia Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Feb 27, 2017

Trump and Putin: The Shortest Honeymoon Ever Is Over

By Ariel Cohen

As Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster takes over President Donald Trump’s National Security Council, conducting a bottom-up review and developing a Russia policy at the NSC, Pentagon, and State Department should be a top priority for the administration. Russia has resumed a quasi-Cold War posture. In the last few weeks, Russia escalated fighting in the occupied […]

Russia Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Feb 27, 2017

What Pence Should Have Said: Russia, Not Terrorism, Is the Most Urgent Security Threat

By Stephen Blank

Whatever else occurred at the annual Munich Security Conference on February 17-19, reassurances were not part of it. None of the statements made by high-ranking American officials allayed European fears about President Donald Trump’s administration because, simultaneously, the White House was busy undermining them. Moreover, Vice President Mike Pence’s “unwavering” support of NATO was balanced […]

Russia Ukraine