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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

Feb 14, 2020

Flawed peace plan for Ukraine doesn’t pass muster

By
Eurasia Center

A distinguished international group of American, European, and Russian former government officials and think tank experts has taken advantage of the Munich Security Conference to issue a statement recommending twelve steps to bring greater security to Ukraine and the Euro-Atlantic region. For years, the Kremlin has tried to change the conversation on Ukraine, and they may have found their opening in Munich. In response, twenty-nine former US diplomats, government officials, and experts point out their errors.


Conflict


Politics & Diplomacy


UkraineAlert

Feb 13, 2020

Nation-building Ukraine marks a year of Orthodox independence

By
Peter Dickinson

Ukraine has recently marked one year of Orthodox independence. The country's religious landscape has yet to change dramatically, but the significance for Ukraine's nation-building journey cannot be overstated.


Civil Society


Russia


UkraineAlert

Feb 13, 2020

Putin forever: Ukraine faces the prospect of endless imperial aggression

By
Taras Kuzio

Vladimir Putin's plans to change the Russian Constitution offer a strong indication that he intends to remain in charge of the country for the rest of his life. For Ukraine, this means coming to terms with the reality of endless imperial aggression.


Conflict


Russia


UkraineAlert

Feb 13, 2020

World must not forget Putin’s Crimean crime

By
Suleiman Mamut

When Vladimir Putin seized Crimea six years ago, he challenged the basic principles of international law. This should make Crimea a vital issue on the international agenda – but the occupied peninsula has long since disappeared from the headlines.


Conflict


Non-Traditional Threats


UkraineAlert

Feb 11, 2020

Bohdan out, Yermak in: What next for Ukraine?

By
Peter Dickinson

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has fired his controversial chief of staff Andriy Bohdan and replaced him with key adviser Andriy Yermak. What will this mean for the future direction of the Zelenskyy presidency?


Politics & Diplomacy


Ukraine


UkraineAlert

Feb 9, 2020

No new Ukraine without justice for Maidan victims

By
Yuri Polakiwsky

Ukraine has made considerable reform progress over the past six years, but until Kyiv offers justice for the dozens of Ukrainians killed during the country's 2014 Revolution of Dignity, many will continue to doubt whether fundamental change is possible.


Democratic Transitions


Rule of Law


UkraineAlert

Feb 6, 2020

Impeachment drama gives Ukraine a US brand boost

By
Ostap Yarysh

The impeachment of President Trump is now over but the drama has had a profound impact on US-Ukrainian relations and on American public awareness of Ukraine.


Politics & Diplomacy


Ukraine


UkraineAlert

Feb 6, 2020

Zelenskyy must not miss his chance to change Ukraine

By
Anders Åslund

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has a huge electoral mandate for change and a solid macroeconomic base to build on – but will he become bogged down in day-to-day corruption like so many of his predecessors?


Corruption


Political Reform


UkraineAlert

Feb 4, 2020

International law may yet contain Putin in Ukraine

By
Michel Waelbroeck and Willem Aldershoff

Rival interpretations of the 2015 Minsk Protocols have brought Ukraine and Russia to deadlock in negotiations to end the undeclared six-year war between the two nations – but could international law help Ukraine to win the diplomatic argument?


Conflict


Russia


UkraineAlert

Feb 4, 2020

US-Ukraine ties after the impeachment drama

By
Volodymyr Dubovyk

The Trump impeachment drama has placed enormous strain on US-Ukraine ties but Kyiv continues to rely on American support in its struggle against Russian aggression. How will the US-Ukraine partnership now evolve?


Conflict


Ukraine

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 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