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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

Will Ukraine’s Intrepid Female Pilot be Swapped for Russian Officers Held by Ukraine?

UkraineAlert
Sep 30, 2025

Putin’s dream of demilitarizing Ukraine has turned into his worst nightmare

By
Peter Dickinson

Putin had hoped to demilitarize and decapitate the Ukrainian state, but his self-defeating invasion has inadvertently created the militarily powerful and fiercely independent Ukraine he feared most of all, writes Peter Dickinson.

Conflict
Defense Technologies

Will Ukraine’s Intrepid Female Pilot be Swapped for Russian Officers Held by Ukraine?

UkraineAlert
Oct 2, 2025

Drone superpower Ukraine is teaching NATO how to defend against Russia

By
David Kirichenko

Ukraine’s unrivaled experience of drone warfare makes it a key partner for NATO and an indispensable ally in the defense of Europe as the continent faces up to the mounting threat posed by an expansionist Russia, writes David Kirichenko.

Conflict
Defense Technologies

Will Ukraine’s Intrepid Female Pilot be Swapped for Russian Officers Held by Ukraine?

UkraineAlert
Oct 14, 2025

Russian strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure are a European problem

By
Aura Sabadus

Russia’s strikes on Ukrainian energy infrastructure are no longer just a Ukrainian problem. Moscow’s bombing campaign will become a wider European issue unless more support is offered to Kyiv, writes Aura Sabadus.

Conflict
Drones

Latest analysis

UkraineAlert

Sep 23, 2021

Zelenskyy slams UN inaction over Putin’s Ukraine war

By
Peter Dickinson

In a strongly worded address at the UN, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned that failure to confront Russian aggression in Ukraine will have grave consequences for international security.

Conflict
Politics & Diplomacy


UkraineAlert

Sep 21, 2021

Rigged vote highlights growing gulf between Putin’s Russia and democratic Ukraine

By
Peter Dickinson

Russia’s deeply flawed recent parliamentary election was a reminder of the growing gulf between the increasingly authoritarian country and the fledgling democratic political culture taking root in neighboring Ukraine.

Conflict
Democratic Transitions


UkraineAlert

Sep 20, 2021

Ukraine’s infrastructure upgrade set to continue

By
Peter Byrne

President Zelenskyy’s Big Construction program, which aims to transform Ukraine’s transport infrastructure through massive road construction works, is set to receive major funding in Ukraine’s 2022 state budget.

Economy & Business
Ukraine


UkraineAlert

Sep 20, 2021

Why we must not recognize Russia’s fraudulent election

By
Oleksiy Goncharenko

Russia’s parliamentary elections failed to meet even the most basic democratic standards and served to illustrate the country’s slide into dictatorship under Vladimir Putin, says Ukrainian MP Oleksiy Goncharenko

Corruption
Elections


UkraineAlert

Sep 17, 2021

Reloading Ukraine’s corporate governance reforms

By
Iaroslav Zhelezniak, Andriy Boytsun, Oleksandr Lysenko

Ukraine’s corporate governance reforms have come under scrutiny this year following controversial developments at Naftogaz. Can new legislation get this important reform initiative back on track?

Economy & Business
Fiscal and Structural Reform


UkraineAlert

Sep 16, 2021

Why Ukraine’s Olympic bid could be a very smart move

By
Peter Dickinson

President Zelenskyy has set his sights on bringing the Winter Olympics to Ukraine. For a country seeking to emerge from international obscurity, hosting the Olympics offers a range of exciting opportunities.

Resilience & Society
Ukraine


UkraineAlert

Sep 16, 2021

America must lead the international response to Russia’s human rights crisis

By
Dave Elseroad

US President Joe Biden took an important step in Geneva towards supporting Russian human rights defenders. America must now follow this up with concrete action to punish Moscow’s abuses.

Human Rights
Russia


UkraineAlert

Sep 15, 2021

Vladimir Putin accused of weaponizing Russian gas

By
Diane Francis

With construction work on Russia’s controversial Nord Stream 2 pipeline now complete, critics say Moscow is weaponizing gas deliveries to Europe in a bid to speed up the lengthy certification process.

European Union
Geopolitics & Energy Security


UkraineAlert

Sep 15, 2021

Ukraine’s top soccer stars join the country’s Ukrainian language renaissance

By
David Kirichenko

Ukraine’s national football team captain Andriy Yarmolenko recently conducted a press conference in Ukrainian, marking the latest small step forward in what is a wider renaissance of the Ukrainian language.

Resilience & Society
Ukraine


BelarusAlert

Sep 14, 2021

Belarus dictator poses growing threat to Ukraine

By
Lisa Yasko

Belarusian dictator Alyaksandr Lukashenka’s growing dependence on the Kremlin is allowing Vladimir Putin to expand his military presence in Belarus and creating a new front in Russia’s hybrid war against Ukraine.

Belarus
Conflict

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spotlight

Resilience in the face of adversity

Ukraine’s transformation

Ukraine has moved tentatively toward an open society and market economy since independence. The country has held several democratic elections and made halting progress in addressing corruption and state control in its economy. Since the 2014 Maidan Revolution, Ukraine has undertaken significant governance and economic reform and moved decisively toward a Europe-Atlantic foreign policy. Since 2022, Ukraine has resiliently continued to advance some reforms despite fighting for its very existence against the full-scale Russian invasion.

Learn more about Ukraine

Will Ukraine’s Intrepid Female Pilot be Swapped for Russian Officers Held by Ukraine?

UkraineAlert
Dec 5, 2024

Ukraine’s entrepreneurial class can drive the country’s economic recovery

The Ukrainian SME sector has demonstrated remarkable wartime resilience and is poised to be at the forefront of efforts to create a modern, innovative, postwar economy, writes Anton Waschuk.

Read More

Will Ukraine’s Intrepid Female Pilot be Swapped for Russian Officers Held by Ukraine?

UkraineAlert
Oct 1, 2024

Ukraine needs international investors to maintain defense tech momentum

By
Mykhailo Fedorov

Ukraine’s rapidly expanding defense tech sector can play a game-changing role in the war against Russia but Ukrainian companies need international investment, writes Ukraine’s Minister for Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov.

Artificial Intelligence
Conflict

Will Ukraine’s Intrepid Female Pilot be Swapped for Russian Officers Held by Ukraine?

UkraineAlert
Jun 13, 2024

Ukraine officially embraces English as historic westward pivot continues

By
Oleksiy Goncharenko

By officially embracing English, Ukrainians aim to support their country’s historic pivot away from Moscow and return to the European community of nations, writes Oleksiy Goncharenko.

Civil Society
Conflict

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

Mar 8, 2016

Will Ukraine’s Intrepid Female Pilot be Swapped for Russian Officers Held by Ukraine?

By Irena Chalupa

“Freedom does not have a price! I don’t believe anyone in Russia! I’m not afraid and I will not beg!”  These may be some of the last words that Nadiya Savchenko, Ukraine’s most famous political prisoner held by Russia, will speak. On March 3, the day her trial was scheduled to end and she was […]

Russia
Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Mar 8, 2016

The Church That Stalin Couldn’t Kill: Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church Thrives Seventy Years after Forced Reunification

By Nadia M. Diuk

Seventy years ago, on March 8-10, 1946, under orders from Josef Stalin, an illegal “synod” of Kremlin-controlled clergy gathered in the city of Lviv, recently absorbed into the Soviet Union as part of the settlement of World War II. The purpose of the gathering was to liquidate the independent existence of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic […]

Russia
Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Mar 7, 2016

Why Does Putin Surprise Us Again and Again?

By Stephen Blank

From Great Britain to the Black Sea, Russia is waging a constant, unceasing information war against virtually every European government. This war takes many forms, but information war in essence entails what Peter Pomerantsev called the weaponization of information in the form of lies, misinformation, propaganda, exploitation of agents of influence, and reflexive actions inducing […]

Russia
Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Mar 7, 2016

Russia Declares War on Crimean Tatars

By Halya Coynash

Two years after invading and annexing Crimea, Russia appears ready to outlaw the Crimean Tatar Mejlis, the representative body of the largest indigenous people of the peninsula. The behavior which Russia deems “extremist” is essentially the Mejlis’ implacable, but always peaceful, opposition to Russia’s occupation. It is unclear whether Western countries will respond with more […]

Russia
Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Mar 7, 2016

Mother of Hunger-Striking Pilot Calls for Justice

By Melinda Haring

Editor’s Note: Ukrainian fighter pilot Nadiya Savchenko started a “dry” hunger strike on March 3 after Russian prosecutors requested a 23-year sentence for Savchenko. In 2014, Savchenko was captured by the pro-Russian separatists in the Donbas, transferred to Russia, where she was accused of involvement in the death of two Russian journalists. Savchenko’s mother Mariya […]

Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Mar 4, 2016

“You Have Not Defeated Me and You Never Will!” Ukrainian Fighter Pilot Nadiya Savchenko Tells Russian Court

By Alexei Sobchenko

Even for Russia, where everyday life can best be described as Kafkaesque, the case of Nadiya Savchenko is outrageous. In 2014, during the war in Ukraine’s Donbas, Savchenko, a Ukrainian military officer captured by the pro-Russian separatists in combat, was transferred to Russia, where she was accused of involvement in the death of two Russian […]

Russia
Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Mar 2, 2016

Early Elections in Ukraine Are Scarier Than You Think

By Adrian Karatnycky

Should Ukraine hold new elections? Despite the failure of Ukraine’s parliament to remove the government of Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk from office on February 16, the defection of two parties from the governing coalition gives President Petro Poroshenko the ability to declare the absence of a majority coalition and force new elections. Western donors, including […]

European Union
International Organizations

UkraineAlert

Mar 2, 2016

Two Cheers for Cold War!

By Alexander J. Motyl

Russian Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev’s recent suggestion that Russia and the West are embroiled in cold war provoked hasty denials by Western policymakers and commentators. In fact, Medvedev was right: cold war between Russia and the West does exist. But the West’s denials were unnecessary, because cold war is the best possible option for its […]

Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Mar 2, 2016

Women of the Euromaidan: Where Were They Then and Where Are They Now

By Josh Cohen

As Kateryna Kruk walked among her fellow protesters in Kyiv’s central square while checking her phone during the early days of the Euromaidan in December 2013, she noticed an opportunity: Ukrainians shared news of the revolution almost entirely in Ukrainian or Russian. Inspired by the use of social media during the Arab Spring, Kruk started […]

Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Feb 29, 2016

The Real Fight for Ukraine’s Future

By Emmet Tuohy

As rain clouds sweep in from the west on a winter morning, the Ukrainian Black Sea town of Mykolayiv does not present the most welcoming picture. Up to three feet of standing water obscure the city’s main intersections, where stray dogs and homeless people rush to traverse four lanes of traffic before the next taxi […]

Ukraine
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