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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

Feb 18, 2020

Unsolved Maidan massacre casts shadow over Ukraine

By
Bohdan Nahaylo

As Ukraine marks the sixth anniversary of the Maidan massacre the country is still waiting for justice. Could something akin to the kind of truth and reconciliation commissions that have proven effective in other countries also work in Ukraine?


Democratic Transitions


Peacekeeping and Peacebuilding


UkraineAlert

Feb 18, 2020

Russian escalation dampens hopes for peace in Ukraine

By
Peter Dickinson

Russian hybrid forces in eastern Ukraine launched a series of artillery bombardments and localized advances early on February 18. What does this latest escalation mean for the already faint hopes of an end to the six-year conflict?


Conflict


Russia


UkraineAlert

Feb 18, 2020

Ukraine in a smartphone: Zelenskyy’s digital dream

By
Anatoly Motkin

President Zelenskyy has called for a digital revolution to transform Ukraine into a "country in a smart phone" but is greater e-government the answer to Ukraine's long struggle against corruption and dysfunction within state institutions?


Democratic Transitions


Internet


UkraineAlert

Feb 17, 2020

Why we welcome debate on Ukraine

By
Eurasia Center

Ukraine can best advance its aspirations by ensuring all its citizens enjoy the right to express their views free from intimidation.


Political Reform


Rule of Law


UkraineAlert

Feb 14, 2020

Flawed peace plan for Ukraine doesn’t pass muster

By
Eurasia Center

A distinguished international group of American, European, and Russian former government officials and think tank experts has taken advantage of the Munich Security Conference to issue a statement recommending twelve steps to bring greater security to Ukraine and the Euro-Atlantic region. For years, the Kremlin has tried to change the conversation on Ukraine, and they may have found their opening in Munich. In response, twenty-nine former US diplomats, government officials, and experts point out their errors.


Conflict


Politics & Diplomacy


UkraineAlert

Feb 13, 2020

Nation-building Ukraine marks a year of Orthodox independence

By
Peter Dickinson

Ukraine has recently marked one year of Orthodox independence. The country's religious landscape has yet to change dramatically, but the significance for Ukraine's nation-building journey cannot be overstated.


Civil Society


Russia


UkraineAlert

Feb 13, 2020

Putin forever: Ukraine faces the prospect of endless imperial aggression

By
Taras Kuzio

Vladimir Putin's plans to change the Russian Constitution offer a strong indication that he intends to remain in charge of the country for the rest of his life. For Ukraine, this means coming to terms with the reality of endless imperial aggression.


Conflict


Russia


UkraineAlert

Feb 13, 2020

World must not forget Putin’s Crimean crime

By
Suleiman Mamut

When Vladimir Putin seized Crimea six years ago, he challenged the basic principles of international law. This should make Crimea a vital issue on the international agenda – but the occupied peninsula has long since disappeared from the headlines.


Conflict


Non-Traditional Threats


UkraineAlert

Feb 11, 2020

Bohdan out, Yermak in: What next for Ukraine?

By
Peter Dickinson

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has fired his controversial chief of staff Andriy Bohdan and replaced him with key adviser Andriy Yermak. What will this mean for the future direction of the Zelenskyy presidency?


Politics & Diplomacy


Ukraine


UkraineAlert

Feb 9, 2020

No new Ukraine without justice for Maidan victims

By
Yuri Polakiwsky

Ukraine has made considerable reform progress over the past six years, but until Kyiv offers justice for the dozens of Ukrainians killed during the country's 2014 Revolution of Dignity, many will continue to doubt whether fundamental change is possible.


Democratic Transitions


Rule of Law

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.

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Content

UkraineAlert

Mar 13, 2017

Six Immediate Steps to Stop Putin’s Aggression

By Jakub Janda

Security experts who follow the West’s responses to Russia’s meddling in its internal affairs—through cyber hacks, massive disinformation, corruption of Western leaders, and espionage—have good reason to be disappointed. With a few exceptions in the Baltic and Scandinavian countries, and recently in the Czech Republic, very few real counter-measures have been put into practice. Despite […]

European Union International Organizations

UkraineAlert

Mar 13, 2017

The Trump-Putin Honeymoon Is Over, But the Marriage Was a Sham

By James Miller

Last year, while Americans were embroiled in one of the ugliest election cycles in recent memory, the Russian media was basking in the phenomenon of Donald Trump. The Kremlin was betting that a Trump presidency would be far more advantageous to its interests. Months before the election, Trump had established an agenda that was arguably […]

Russia Ukraine

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