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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

Sep 22, 2022

Will Ukraine invasion condemn Putin to place among Russia’s worst rulers?

By
Anders Åslund

Vladimir Putin has long dreamed of securing his place among the titans of Russian history but his disastrous Ukraine invasion now leaves him destined to be remembered as one of the country’s worst rulers.


Conflict


Corruption


UkraineAlert

Sep 21, 2022

Putin’s nuclear ultimatum is a desperate bid to freeze a losing war

By
Peter Dickinson

Vladimir Putin's threat to use nuclear weapons in the war against Ukraine is a sign of the Russian dictator's mounting desperation as his invasion continues to unravel and his country's geopolitical isolation deepens.


Central Asia


Conflict


UkraineAlert

Sep 20, 2022

Weaponizing education: Russia targets schoolchildren in occupied Ukraine

By
Oleksandr Pankieiev

The Kremlin is attempting to impose the russification of Ukrainian schoolchildren in occupied areas as part of Moscow's campaign to extinguish Ukrainian statehood and eradicate all traces of Ukrainian national identity.


Civil Society


Conflict


UkraineAlert

Sep 18, 2022

Most multinationals remain in Russia and fund Putin’s invasion of Ukraine

By
Diane Francis

Despite much coverage of multinational corporations leaving the Russian market in protect over the invasion of Ukraine, in reality the majority of international companies have yet to fully exit Russia.


Conflict


Economy & Business


UkraineAlert

Sep 17, 2022

Putin’s Russian Empire is collapsing like its Soviet predecessor

By
Taras Kuzio

Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine was meant to extinguish the Ukrainian state once and for all. Instead, Russian influence in the post-Soviet region is in danger of receding to levels not witnessed in hundreds of years.


Belarus


Central Asia


UkraineAlert

Sep 15, 2022

Putin’s self-defeating invasion turns southern Ukrainians away from Russia

By
Michael Druckman

Putin framed his Ukraine invasion as a crusade to rescue Russian-speaking Ukrainians but polling data indicates that the war has turned traditionally Russian-speaking regions of Ukraine decisively against the Kremlin.


Civil Society


Conflict


UkraineAlert

Sep 14, 2022

The complex reality behind Vladimir Putin’s nuclear blackmail in Ukraine

By
Suriya Evans-Pritchard Jayanti

Putin's recent efforts to blackmail European leaders by threatening a nuclear disaster at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) in Ukraine reflect Russia's use of fear and energy as foreign policy tools.


Conflict


Disinformation


UkraineAlert

Sep 13, 2022

Ukrainian victory shatters Russia’s reputation as a military superpower

By
Andriy Zagorodnyuk

The stunning success of Ukraine’s counteroffensive in the Kharkiv region has exposed the rotten reality behind Russia’s military superpower reputation and convinced many that a decisive Ukrainian victory is now possible.


Conflict


Corruption


UkraineAlert

Sep 13, 2022

Ukraine is winning but needs weapons to end Russia’s genocidal occupation

By
Kristina Hook

Ukraine's recent Kharkiv counteroffensive was a major breakthrough but the country's Western partners must now deliver more weapons in order to achieve a decisive victory and end Russia's genocidal occupation.


Conflict


Disinformation


UkraineAlert

Sep 11, 2022

Russia is facing defeat in Putin’s gas war against the European Union

By
Aura Sabadus

Vladimir Putin has declared an energy war against the European Union but there are growing signs that the Russian dictator may have overplayed his hand, writes Aura Sabadus.


Conflict


Energy Markets & Governance

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

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

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