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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

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


UkraineAlert

Jul 13, 2016

Has Ukraine Really Changed?

By
Michael McCarthy

On Sunday, July 17, voters in seven electoral districts in Ukraine will head to the polls to select their representatives for the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s parliament. This special election is set to fill vacancies, some due to ministerial appointments and elections to other offices, and in one case due to the death of an incumbent. […]


Ukraine


UkraineAlert

Jul 12, 2016

Ukraine’s Art Arsenal: Where Culture and Politics Crossed Swords

By
Kateryna Smagliy

During his July 7 visit to Kyiv, US Secretary of State John Kerry announced that the United States will pour an additional $23 million in aid into Ukraine. Radiating sincerity, President Petro Poroshenko said this decision was a “vivid reflection of a deep trust that the United States has for Ukraine” as well as Ukraine’s […]


Ukraine


UkraineAlert

Jul 12, 2016

At Warsaw, NATO Agrees to Thwart Putin’s Revisionist Dreams

By
John E. Herbst

NATO leaders finally demonstrated at the Warsaw Summit on July 8 and 9 that they understand the dangers of a revisionist Kremlin, and they approved significant measures to resist it. Unlike the Wales Summit in 2014, which noted that ISIS was an “existential threat to NATO” but made no similar claims about the marauding nuclear […]


Russia


Ukraine

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UkraineAlert

Dec 19, 2016

The Future of Ukraine’s Economy

By Melinda Haring

“What we need most of all is the end of hostilities,” said Martin Sajdik, Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office in Ukraine and the Trilateral Contact Group on the implementation of the peace plan in eastern Ukraine, at an event about Ukraine. “Without international assistance from the EU, from the United States, from Japan…I don’t […]

Russia Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Dec 19, 2016

Ukraine Nationalizes its Biggest Bank. Here’s Why This Is a Good Thing

By Anders Åslund

On December 18, the Ukrainian authorities nationalized PrivatBank, the country’s biggest bank. This decision may mark the end of the banking crisis in Ukraine. PrivatBank accounts for one-fifth of all Ukrainian banking assets and half of payments. It is the dominant bank for small and medium-sized businessmen, but about 70 percent of its lending is […]

Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Dec 15, 2016

Russia’s ‘Active Measures’ Are Back with a Vengeance

By Amanda Abrams

The issue of Russian hacking of American email accounts in order to influence the US presidential election reached new heights this week. President Barack Obama ordered the intelligence community to conduct a full review of Russia’s interference in the elections before he leaves office on January 20, and Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham announced […]

Cybersecurity Russia

UkraineAlert

Dec 13, 2016

Q&A: What Does a Friend of Putin at Foggy Bottom Mean for Ukraine?

By Melinda Haring

President-elect Donald Trump has picked ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson as his secretary of state. In 2013, Russian President Vladimir Putin personally bestowed Russia’s Order of Friendship on Tillerson. As CEO of ExxonMobil, he’s argued for sanctions relief on Russia. By October 2016, some reports estimate that Exxon has lost $1 billion because of White House […]

Russia Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Dec 12, 2016

Swedish Tech Entrepreneurs Find Top Talent and Warm Welcome in Ukraine

By Diane Francis

Gustav Henman describes his time at Moscow State University as a “Russian cold shower.” But he was no stranger to cold weather as a Swede, and has ended up in Ukraine, where the weather is slightly more moderate and the engineering talent plentiful. He and his business partner, Andreas Flodström, went to Ukraine in 2012 […]

Northern Europe Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Dec 7, 2016

Beware of the Russian Bear in the Balkans

By Harriet Salem

On October 16, just hours before Montenegrins were due to head to the polls, the government made an alarming announcement. It claimed security services had foiled a Russian nationalist attempt to seize control of the parliament and assassinate Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic (who has since resigned). The Kremlin undoubtedly has an axe to grind with […]

Russia The Balkans

UkraineAlert

Dec 7, 2016

Sanctions on Russia Need More Teeth

By Sergey Aleksashenko

It has been more than two years since the European Union and the United States imposed economic sanctions on Russia for its aggression in Ukraine. How effective have the sanctions been? According to US Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland in 2016, sanctions were meant to “press Moscow to bring an end to the violence […]

Russia Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Dec 6, 2016

Trump, Brexit, and the Myth of Ukrainian Nationalism

By Peter Dickinson

The election of Donald Trump to the US presidency is the latest indication that the liberal globalist consensus of the post-Cold War era is finally over. The sanctity of political correctness has been shattered and we now find ourselves hurtling headlong into the uncharted territory of anti-establishment populism. Trump’s triumph is part of a broader […]

Russia Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Dec 5, 2016

There’s More to DC Fashion than Gray Suits and More to Ukraine than War

By Melinda Haring

Vogue cannot get enough of Ukraine’s new designers and eye-catching traditional designs. Since the Euromaidan, the magazine has covered the country’s hot fashion scene half a dozen times. On November 30, seven of Ukraine’s designers were on display at a fashion show in Washington, DC, “to celebrate Ukraine’s creative culture,” said Alexa Chopivsky, executive director […]

Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Dec 5, 2016

“Ukraine Is Approaching the Turning Point: The Choice Is Reform or Chaos,” Saakashvili Warns

By Diane Francis

Former Georgia President Mikheil Saakashvili’s opening remarks at the Kyiv Post’s Tiger Conference on November 29 were puzzling. “Thanks for a couple of cameras,” he said. He was referring to the fact that even though he is a national figure with a resonant message in Ukraine, he’s the victim of a news blackout by the […]

Ukraine