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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 16, 2026

Ukraine’s tech-savvy defense minister ousted in clash with army old guard

By
Peter Dickinson

President Zelenskyy's decision to side with the army old guard and oust Ukraine's tech-savvy Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov has sparked a political crisis and raised questions over the country's future direction, writes Peter Dickinson.


Conflict


Defense Policy


UkraineAlert

Jul 16, 2026

Innovation under fire: Ukraine’s energy defense is a blueprint for the world

By
Oleksii Riabchyn

Those who still treat energy resilience as a technical matter are not prepared for the changes currently taking place in military doctrine. Thanks to Ukraine, the blueprint to address this vulnerability exists, writes Oleksii Riabchyn.


Conflict


Defense Technologies


UkraineAlert

Jul 16, 2026

Ukraine’s national recovery must go far beyond rebuilding what was lost

By
Vitalii Kim

As international efforts to end the Russian invasion of Ukraine continue, it is also vital to look beyond the battlefield and address the issue of Ukraine’s recovery in order to create the conditions for a genuine national renewal, writes Vitalii Kim.


Conflict


Critical Infrastructure Policy


UkraineAlert

Jul 14, 2026

Drone superpower Ukraine is now Europe’s first line of defense

By
David Kirichenko

Ukrainian troops took part in the annual Bastille Day parade in Paris for the first time on July 14, underling Ukraine's key role as Europe's first line of defense against Putin's Russia, writes David Kirichenko.


Conflict


Defense Technologies


UkraineAlert

Jul 9, 2026

NATO summit dashes Putin’s hopes of outlasting the West in Ukraine

By
Peter Dickinson

This week's NATO summit in Ankara focused on demonstrating a united front in support of Ukraine. This was a major blow for Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, who still hopes Western disunity can hand Russia victory in Ukraine, writes Peter Dickinson.


Conflict


Defense Policy


UkraineAlert

Jul 7, 2026

Putin escalates ballistic missile attacks as Patriot shortages leave Ukraine defenseless

By
Karlis Kuskevics

Ballistic missiles are accounting for a growing share of Russia’s increasingly deadly attacks on Ukrainian cities, as Moscow unleashes a new bombing strategy seeking to exploit a global shortage of US-made Patriot air defense systems, writes Karlis Kuskevics.


Conflict


Defense Technologies


UkraineAlert

Jul 6, 2026

A humanitarian crisis is unfolding in Russian-occupied southern Ukraine

By
Oleksandr Tolokonnikov

A humanitarian crisis is unfolding in Russian-occupied southern Ukraine, with thousands of Ukrainian civilians facing severe risks to their lives, food shortages, and a lack of medical assistance, according to a new UN report.


Conflict


Drones


UkraineAlert

Jul 5, 2026

With Putin visibly weakened, now is the time to back Ukraine

By
Kira Rudik

Russian President Vladimir Putin is currently in a weaker position than at any time since Ukraine's battlefield victories in 2022. Kyiv's Western allies must seize this window of opportunity to push for peace through strength, writes Kira Rudik.


Conflict


European Union


UkraineAlert

Jul 4, 2026

Putin may gamble on mobilization to rescue Russia’s Ukraine invasion

By
Mykola Bielieskov

With the tide turning in Ukraine's favor on the battlefield and Russian manpower problems mounting, Kremlin dictator Vladimir Putin may soon be forced to gamble on a politically risky mass mobilization in order to rescue his invasion, writes Mykola Bielieskov.


Conflict


Defense Policy


UkraineAlert

Jul 4, 2026

Ukraine is showing NATO the future of warfare

By
Myroslava Gongadze

Over five years, Ukraine has done more than expose Russia's weaknesses. It has revealed the future of warfare. NATO leaders must now demonstrate at the Ankara Summit that they are ready for the new security environment, writes Myroslava Gongadze.


Conflict


Defense Technologies

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.

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Content

UkraineAlert

Oct 5, 2016

Berlin or Bust: Germany Key to Maintaining Sanctions on Russia

By Oksana Bedratenko

When Russia illegally annexed Crimea and armed separatists in eastern Ukraine, the United States and the European Union jointly condemned it. Together they introduced sanctions on Russia in July 2014 that limited access to finance for key companies in Russia’s energy, defense, and financial sectors; froze assets and banned travel for officials directly involved in […]

Germany Russia

UkraineAlert

Oct 5, 2016

Q&A: Is Ukraine Still Changing?

By Melinda Haring

Three Atlantic Council experts answer questions about Ukraine’s ongoing reforms. 1. It’s been nearly three years since the Euromaidan protests began. How would you grade the pace and extent of Ukraine’s reforms? Anders Åslund, Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council: In 2014, Ukraine carried out two vital preconditions for economic reform, early presidential and parliamentary […]

Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Oct 4, 2016

Stop Mistaking Russia for Europe

By Andrew Kornbluth

Like a coin inserted into a broken candy machine, the most recent attempt by the United States to broker a ceasefire with the Russians in Syria has vanished with nothing to show for it. Instead, in a calculated gesture of contempt, Russian and Syrian government forces annihilated a humanitarian convoy before beginning an unprecedented round-the-clock […]

Russia Syria

UkraineAlert

Oct 3, 2016

Kremlin Panics after Dutch Report, and It Should

By Alexei Sobchenko

The report of the Dutch-led investigation team on the shoot down of Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 over eastern Ukraine offered a momentary glimpse into the true nature of the proverbial riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma. Instead of denying any Russian involvement in the death of 298 people in July 2014, a number […]

Russia Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Sep 29, 2016

The Lessons of Babyn Yar: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow

By Kateryna Smagliy

“No gravestone stands on Babyn Yar,” wrote the Soviet poet Yevgeniy Yevtushenko in 1961. He was condemning the Soviet regime’s failure to acknowledge the Babyn Yar tragedy twenty-five years after World War II had ended. When a monument was finally erected in 1974 to commemorate the deaths of 100,000 people generically characterized as “Soviet citizens,” […]

Russia Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Sep 28, 2016

Putin’s Balkan Insecurities

By Stephen Blank

Two and a half years after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, too many public figures in the United States and Europe still seem unable to decipher Russia’s motives. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov recently told a Bosnian newspaper that NATO’s readiness to extend membership to Montenegro and welcome Bosnia and Macedonia was not only a […]

Russia Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Sep 26, 2016

The Audacity of Nadiya Savchenko

By Melinda Haring

“Russian propaganda made the mistake of using me as an example, and I just became too expensive for them. I am a person who never gives up,” said Nadiya Savchenko, a former prisoner of war, current member of Ukraine’s parliament, and one of the country’s most popular politicians, on September 22. Three days earlier, the […]

Russia Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Sep 26, 2016

Can Vladimir Putin Make the Twenty-First Century a Russian Century?

By Anders Åslund

The role Russia is playing in Donald Trump’s election campaign is quite extraordinary. The candidate’s son has acknowledged that Trump’s companies have received large Russian investments. His former campaign manager Paul Manafort worked for Ukraine’s disgraced pro-Moscow authoritarian president for almost a decade. Two of his foreign policy advisers, Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn and Carter […]

European Union International Organizations

UkraineAlert

Sep 23, 2016

How Ukraine Can Signal It’s Serious about Reform

By Oksana Bedratenko

Thirteen months since the last tranche, the IMF has finally allocated the third tranche of its program to Ukraine, bringing the total disbursement to $7.6 billion. Although it is less than the originally planned $1.7 billion and came with substantial delays, the receipt of the $1 billion tranche was celebrated by the Ukrainian government as […]

Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Sep 21, 2016

Crimean Residents Vote in Russian Elections, Reluctantly

By Eleanor Knott

For the first time since Russia annexed Crimea, Russian elections were held on the territory of the disputed peninsula. That elections were held in Crimea has been a source of contention between Russia and the international community. OSCE election observers refused to monitor the polls in Crimea, and the US and EU condemned the September […]

Ukraine