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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

Aug 17, 2022

Russia’s Ukraine War is forcing the Belarus opposition to rethink strategy

By
Alesia Rudnik

Representatives of the Belarusian opposition gathered in Vilnius on August 8-9 for a conference that highlighted a mood of growing militancy as they respond to the new realities created by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.


Belarus


Civil Society


UkraineAlert

Aug 16, 2022

Putin’s Ukraine genocide is rooted in Russian impunity for Soviet crimes

By
Alexander Khara

Failure to hold anyone accountable for the crimes of the Soviet era has fostered a climate of impunity in modern Russia that has paved the way for the genocidal invasion of Ukraine, writes Alexander Khara.


Conflict


Disinformation


UkraineAlert

Aug 15, 2022

Will the United States designate Russia a state sponsor of terrorism?

By
Mark Temnycky

As Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine approaches the six-month mark amid growing evidence of war crimes, pressure is mounting on the Biden Administration to designate Russia a state sponsor of terrorism.


Conflict


European Union


UkraineAlert

Aug 14, 2022

Russia’s invasion has highlighted Ukraine’s nation-building progress

By
Anders Åslund

Ukraine's remarkably resilient response to Russia’s February 2022 invasion has highlighted the impressive nation-building progress made by the country since the chaotic early years of the post-Soviet era.


Civil Society


Conflict


UkraineAlert

Aug 12, 2022

Guide to wartime Kyiv: City on the frontlines of European history

By
Andreas Umland

Visiting wartime Ukraine is certainly an extreme option but a trip to today’s Kyiv offers an opportunity to witness world history in the making while providing Ukrainians with meaningful moral and material support.


Civil Society


Conflict


UkraineAlert

Aug 11, 2022

Generation UA: Young Ukrainians are driving the resistance to Russia’s war

By
Mehri Druckman

Generation UA: From politics and the military to civil society and journalism, the post-independence generation of young Ukrainians is driving the country's remarkable fight back against Russia's invasion.


Civil Society


Conflict


UkraineAlert

Aug 10, 2022

Putin is running out of excuses as Ukraine expands the war to Crimea

By
Peter Dickinson

Russian officials have denied that Ukraine was behind an audacious August 9 attack on an airbase in occupied Crimea but Moscow's excuses are beginning to wear thin as Vladimir Putin's invasion continues to unravel.


Conflict


Disinformation


UkraineAlert

Aug 9, 2022

Flawed Amnesty report risks enabling more Russian war crimes in Ukraine

By
Lillian Posner

Amnesty International's recent report accusing Ukraine of endangering civilian lives has sparked a wave of international criticism and is being actively used by the Kremlin to justify Russian bombing of civilian targets.


Civil Society


Conflict


UkraineAlert

Aug 8, 2022

Putin has forced Ukrainians to view Russian culture as a weapon of war

By
Kate Tsurkan

Efforts to reduce Russia's cultural footprint in Ukraine have sparked criticism but in reality it is Putin who has weaponized Russian culture and forced Ukrainians to view the likes of Pushkin and Dostoevsky as tools of empire.


Civil Society


Conflict


UkraineAlert

Aug 5, 2022

Russia’s invasion is putting the future of Ukraine’s forests at risk

By
Yehor Hrynyk

As the Russian invasion approaches the six-month mark, Ukraine's forests are facing the twin threats of frontline wildfires and wartime emergency economic measures that could lead to a disastrous increase in logging.


Conflict


Eastern Europe

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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

Jun 29, 2016

Now Is Not the Time to Scrap the Minsk Agreement

By John E. Herbst

A Reply to David J. Kramer Editor’s Note: On June 22, Ambassador John Herbst and David J. Kramer debated whether we should bury the Minsk agreement, the troubled ceasefire agreement in Ukraine, at an Atlantic Council event in Washington, DC. Their remarks have been adapted from the debate. Ukraine’s discussion of the war with Russia […]

Germany OSCE

UkraineAlert

Jun 28, 2016

Memo to NATO: Wake Up Before Putin Turns the Black Sea into a Russian Lake

By Stephen Blank

By invading Ukraine and annexing Crimea, Russian President Vladimir Putin has transformed the security situation in the Black Sea. Upon capturing those territories, Moscow lost no time in seizing Ukrainian energy facilities in the Black Sea and accelerating its ongoing military modernization there. As a result, Moscow has built a combined arms force of land, […]

NATO Russia

UkraineAlert

Jun 27, 2016

What Brexit Means for Ukraine

By Andreas Umland

After British voters approved a referendum to leave the EU on June 23, Ukraine’s Vice Prime Minister for European Integration Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze said: “We respect the British citizens’ decision, but Ukraine feels sorry for these events. To my mind this will weaken the EU and it will have to concentrate on its own problems.”  The […]

Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Jun 27, 2016

The Dangerous Perspective of Theo Sommer

By Alexander J. Motyl

This time, Theo Sommer has outdone himself. After closing his eyes to the mass murders of the Soviet regime in an article published on May 31, the editor-at-large of Germany’s prestigious Die Zeit newspaper has now demonstrated in a just-published piece an alarming ignorance not just of Ukraine but of elementary strategic logic. The former […]

Germany Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Jun 22, 2016

Thanks to Russia, Ukrainians Swell Ranks of Kyiv Patriarchate

By James J. Coyle

Russia’s continued meddling in Ukraine is driving Ukrainian citizens out of the Russian Orthodox Church. Instead, they are swelling the ranks of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Kyiv Patriarchate. Traditionally, Ukraine has been home to the vast majority of Russian Orthodox Church members. In 1990, of the almost twelve thousand Orthodox communities throughout the Soviet Union, more […]

Russia Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Jun 22, 2016

Europe’s Short Memory and Ukraine’s Long Crisis

By Melinda Haring

“People have forgotten that there’s a real humanitarian situation and a real need in a European country,” said Jock Mendoza-Wilson, director of international and investor relations at System Capital Management, during a recent Atlantic Council panel examining the crisis in Ukraine. In fact, he said, six hundred thousand people on Ukraine’s contact line live in […]

Russia Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Jun 22, 2016

Now’s the Time to Block Nord Stream 2 and Step Up Ukraine’s Energy Diplomacy

By Olga Bielkova

Ukraine—a country that rejected aggression and militarization when it broke away from the Soviet Union—is fighting three wars today: the front in the east against an expansionist power, the battle within to defeat cronyism and corruption, and an economic war to reorient trade flows and modernize its economy. The world’s attention, as well as that […]

European Union Germany

UkraineAlert

Jun 22, 2016

EU Renews Sanctions on Crimea but Overlooks Plight of Crimean Tatars

By Eleanor Knott

In April 2016, Crimea’s de facto authorities banned the Crimean Tatar Mejlis—the organ of political representation for Crimean Tatars on the peninsula—under the pretext of “extremism.” Increasingly, Crimean Tatars seem to be framed as “extremist” just for being themselves. A historically nonviolent community, Crimean Tatars were the most visible and vociferous opponents of the region’s […]

Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Jun 21, 2016

The Painful Journeys of Ukraine’s IDPs

By Kateryna Moroz

Two years ago this past April, the words “internal displacement” first appeared in the Ukrainian media. The term was brought by UN agencies that, along with local nongovernmental organizations, worked on a legal framework to regulate the phenomenon, which was completely new to Ukraine. Before then, journalists, volunteers, and even government officials called those who […]

Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Jun 21, 2016

Germany’s Socialists, Russia’s Fascism, and Ukrainian Deaths

By Alexander J. Motyl

On June 15, Ukraine’s Minister of Defense Stepan Poltorak informed NATO that Ukraine had suffered 623 battle deaths in its war with Russia in 2016. This astoundingly large figure—which amounts to three to four deaths per day—demonstrates conclusively that Russia and its proxies have no intention whatsoever of adhering to the Minsk accords. The number […]

Russia Ukraine