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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

Apr 2, 2022

Putin’s War: Ukraine can defeat Russia but urgently needs more weapons

By
Oleksandr Danylyuk

Western leaders must urgently rethink their cautious attitude towards arming Ukraine and provide the country with the offensive weapons it needs in order to defeat Putin on the battlefield, argues Oleksandr Danylyuk.


Conflict


European Union


UkraineAlert

Apr 1, 2022

Russian contempt for Ukraine paved the way for Putin’s disastrous invasion

By
Anders Åslund

The many miscalculations that paved the way for Vladimir Putin's disastrous invasion of Ukraine are rooted in longstanding Russian ignorance of Ukraine and contempt for all things Ukrainian, writes Anders Åslund.


Civil Society


Conflict


UkraineAlert

Mar 31, 2022

Ukrainian civil society can help hold Russia accountable for war crimes

By
Danielle Johnson

The quest for international justice over the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine is already underway and should seek to involve Ukrainian civil society, argues Danielle Johnson.


Civil Society


Conflict


UkraineAlert

Mar 31, 2022

Putin will win unless the West sends Ukraine offensive weapons

By
Alyona Getmanchuk

Western weapons have played a key role in helping Ukraine to inflict punishing losses on Putin's invasion force but Russia may still secure a bloody victory if the democratic world fails to accelerate arms deliveries.


Conflict


European Union


UkraineAlert

Mar 29, 2022

Russia in retreat: Putin appears to admit defeat in the Battle for Kyiv

By
Peter Dickinson

Kremlin officials have announced plans to withdraw troops from the Kyiv region in what is widely being seen as a major setback for Putin's war and tacit recognition of Russia’s failure to seize the Ukrainian capital.


Conflict


National Security


UkraineAlert

Mar 28, 2022

No compromises with the Kremlin: Why we must denazify Putin’s Russia

By
Kateryna Zarembo

Russian President Vladimir Putin claims to be engaged in a crusade to "denazify" democratic Ukraine, but in reality it is his own increasingly authoritarian regime that is in urgent need of "denazification," writes Kateryna Zarembo.


Conflict


Disinformation


UkraineAlert

Mar 27, 2022

Russian energy embargo: Europe must stop financing Putin’s Ukraine war 

By
Diane Francis

Naftogaz CEO Yuriy Vitrenko has accused European countries of funding Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine and called for an immediate embargo on all Russian energy exports in order to stop the war.


Conflict


European Union


UkraineAlert

Mar 25, 2022

Ukraine’s southern capital Odesa prepares to repel Russian invasion

By
Oleksiy Goncharenko

Vladimir Putin must take Odesa if he wishes to subjugate the whole of Ukraine but the predominantly Russian-speaking Black Sea port city is in defiant mood amid preparations to repel the Russian invaders.


Conflict


Disinformation


UkraineAlert

Mar 23, 2022

Vladimir Putin’s Ukraine War can end in only two ways: Genocide or defeat

By
Peter Dickinson

Vladimir Putin has repeatedly stated that he regards Ukrainians as Russians and does not recognize Ukraine's right to exist. Unless he is defeated, his Ukraine invasion may deteriorate into a genocide in the heart of Europe.


Conflict


Disinformation


UkraineAlert

Mar 21, 2022

Vladimir Putin’s criminal war has killed the myth of Russian-Ukrainian unity

By
Alexander Khrebet

The Russian invasion of Ukraine was meant to secure Vladimir Putin’s place in history and reunify what Moscow views as the divided lands of historic Russia. Instead, it has killed the myth of Russian-Ukrainian unity.


Conflict


Disinformation

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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

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

UkraineAlert

Sep 21, 2016

Meet Maxim Nefyodov: How Ukrainian Geeks Tackled Corruption in Public Procurement

By Anastasiya Ringis

One day in September 2013, when Maxim Nefyodov, a managing partner at the investment firm Icon Private Equity, was leaving his office on Rylskiy Lane, he witnessed a funny scene. Accompanied by eight bodyguards, President Viktor Yanukovych’s odious ally, Yuriy Ivanyushchenko, was walking from an office building to his luxury SUV. To Nefyodov this spectacle […]

Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Sep 21, 2016

Does Putin Have 35 Million Secret Weapons?

By Lukas Trakimavičius

“Russia is back.” These were the recent words of General Curtis Scaparrotti, NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Europe—and he was correct. Thanks to a rapidly growing arms budget and a worrisome frequency of snap military drills near NATO’s borders, Russia is indeed back to the game of power politics after a twenty-five year hiatus. The implications […]

Russia Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Sep 19, 2016

Putin’s Illusions about Crimea

By Olesya Yakhno

In the recent plenary session of the Eastern Economic Forum [on September 3 in Vladivostok], Russian President Vladimir Putin stated that the issue of Crimea’s ownership is historically closed. Despite the adamant tone, such statements do not show Russia’s confidence but instead reveal the Kremlin’s vulnerability on this issue. The concept Krym nash (Crimea is […]

Russia Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Sep 19, 2016

Memo to the West: Reject Russia’s Illegal Duma Elections

By Hanna Hopko

On September 18, Russians went to the polls to elect 450 members of parliament. The big news is that Vladimir Putin’s United Russia performed surprisingly well, taking approximately 54 percent of the vote. But the underreported news is this: Russians elected four MPs from occupied Ukrainian Crimea, which is illegal and grossly violates international law. […]

Russia Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Sep 19, 2016

Ten Things the New US Ambassador to Ukraine Should Do

By Melinda Haring and Kateryna Smagliy

On August 18, Marie L. Yovanovitch became the US Ambassador to Ukraine. Yovanovitch is not new to the country; she served as the deputy chief of mission in Kyiv—the second in command—under Ambassadors Carlos Pascual and John Herbst months before the Orange Revolution erupted. She spent the bulk of her career working in the Eurasia […]

Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Sep 14, 2016

Why the West Ignores Russia’s Wars

By Andrew Kornbluth

This month will mark one year since the beginning of Russia’s intervention in Syria and two and a half years since its invasion of Ukraine’s Donbas region. In Syria, Russia has indiscriminately bombed inhabited areas using virtually every type of conventional munition in its arsenal—thermobaric, cluster, and incendiary—killing around 3,000 civilians so far. These deaths […]

Russia Ukraine