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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

Oct 26, 2021

Ukraine seeks role in German certification of Putin’s pipeline

By
Myron Wasylyk

Ukraine's Naftogaz has applied to the German authorities to participate in the certification process of Vladimir Putin's Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which is viewed in Kyiv as a geopolitical weapon aimed at Ukrainian statehood.


Energy Markets & Governance


European Union


UkraineAlert

Oct 25, 2021

Europe must face up to the chilling reality of Putin’s energy blackmail

By
Aura Sabadus

Recent developments in Moldova and the EU leave little doubt that Vladimir Putin is intent on using energy supplies as a geopolitical weapon and demonstrate the urgent need to diversify away from reliance on Russia.


European Union


Geopolitics & Energy Security


UkraineAlert

Oct 22, 2021

US and EU must react to escalating global energy crisis

By
Anders Åslund

Recent mistakes by Germany, the EU, and the United States on gas policy are potentially disastrous and will have major costs unless all three parties urgently rethink their positions and address the growing energy crisis.


China


European Union


UkraineAlert

Oct 21, 2021

Ukraine’s classical music superstar Oksana Lyniv makes history again

By
Peter Dickinson

Ukraine's superstar classical music conductor Oksana Lyniv made history yet again in October 2021 when she was named as the first ever female musical director of the Teatro Comunale di Bologna in Italy.


Resilience & Society


Ukraine


UkraineAlert

Oct 21, 2021

Now is the moment to transform Ukraine

By
Kristina Kvien, Matti Maasikas, Melinda Simmons

Ukraine is on the verge of achieving a breakthrough towards judicial reform and transforming the rule of law situation in the country but President Zelenskyy must demonstrate the political will to overcome opposition.


Corruption


Democratic Transitions


UkraineAlert

Oct 21, 2021

Ukraine strengthens independence of key anti-corruption agency

By
Anastasia Radina

Ukrainian MPs adopted a landmark law on October 19 that will safeguard the independence of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU), the key agency in the country’s struggle against corruption.


Corruption


Democratic Transitions


UkraineAlert

Oct 19, 2021

Putin’s Ukraine war is world’s worst-kept secret but he remains in denial

By
Peter Dickinson

Russian President Vladimir Putin's refusal to acknowledge his country's involvement in the ongoing conflict in eastern Ukraine makes progress towards peace virtually impossible.


Conflict


Russia


UkraineAlert

Oct 19, 2021

Russia is the world’s leading exporter of instability

By
Iuliia Mendel

Vladimir Putin's Russia has emerged over the past two decades as the world's leading exporter of instability via tools ranging from digital disinformation and weaponized corruption to cyber attacks and military mercenaries.


Cybersecurity


Disinformation


UkraineAlert

Oct 15, 2021

Ukraine flirts with disastrous return to gas price caps

By
Anders Åslund

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s Servant of the People party has proposed a potentially disastrous new law to “temporarily” prohibit private companies from selling gas at commercial market prices.


Energy Markets & Governance


Geopolitics & Energy Security


UkraineAlert

Oct 14, 2021

Open Skies agreement will deepen Ukraine’s European integration

By
Peter Dickinson

The Open Skies aviation agreement signed in Kyiv on October 12 will strengthen connectivity between Ukraine and the EU while significantly enhancing Ukraine's ongoing European integration.


Economy & Business


European Union

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

Aug 2, 2016

What Trade Policy Does Ukraine Need Now?

By Anders Åslund

At the informal ministerial meeting of the Eastern Partnership in Kyiv on July 11-12, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin proposed that the six members of the Eastern Partnership (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine) form a single economic space or free trade area. This is implausible. Ukraine does need to open its economy to […]

Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Aug 1, 2016

Trump Embraces Putin and Alienates Rust Belt Voters with Eastern European Roots

By Diane Francis

Hillary Clinton’s campaign bus rattles over potholes and bumps in the US Rust Belt while Donald Trump flits around on his private jet. Such optics never seem to hurt Trump or, conversely, to help Hillary, but much depends on voters in the Rust Belt, notably in Ohio and Pennsylvania. Trump may be a master of […]

Russia Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Jul 27, 2016

Ukraine’s Deadly Profession: Three Journalists Attacked in July

By Melinda Haring

On July 20, investigative journalist Pavel Sheremet was assassinated in Kyiv. Sheremet hosted a morning show at Radio Vesti and was a top reporter at Ukrainska Pravda. A crusading journalist and native of Minsk, Belarus, he had already been expelled from both Belarus and Russia. He was killed by a car bomb. It would be […]

Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Jul 26, 2016

Intrigue, Outrage, and Relatively Free Elections in Ukraine

By Vladislav Davidzon

On the eve of Ukraine’s special elections on July 17, Nadiya Savchenko walked into the crowded Stansiya Lughansk district commission offices in eastern Ukraine. She was there to campaign for Fatherland’s Iryna Verihina, who had been Luhansk’s governor for about six months before being replaced. Catching sight of Serhiy Shakhov, a candidate for Nash Krai […]

Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Jul 26, 2016

Established Political Parties Benefit from Ukraine’s New Reform

By Miriam Kosmehl and Andreas Umland

This month, Ukraine introduced state financing of political parties in the hopes that it will create a more transparent, equal, and democratic playing field for politicians and their organizations. But the process will not be as beneficial to Ukraine’s reform efforts as it could have been. In October 2015, the Ukrainian parliament adopted Law No. […]

Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Jul 20, 2016

How the GOP Abandons Ukraine

By Jeffrey Gedmin

When asked recently why he turned up in Moscow last December to help celebrate the tenth anniversary of RT, Michael Flynn rambled about wanting to deliver stern lectures to the Russians. The retired US Lt. Gen.—who now serves as foreign policy adviser to Republican nominee Donald J. Trump—was seated at a gala dinner next to […]

Russia Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Jul 20, 2016

Remembering the Former Soviet Union’s Top Investigative Journalist

By Anders Åslund

Car Bomb Kills Prominent Journalist Pavel Sheremet in Kyiv  It is hard to believe that Pavel Sheremet is dead because he was so full of life. He was an exuberant man who loved life and everything in it. A dinner with Pavel was always a wonderful and lively affair, and he enjoyed the food and […]

Belarus Russia

UkraineAlert

Jul 20, 2016

Turkey: Another US Intelligence Failure

By Stephen Blank

A less-well known but vital outcome of NATO’s Warsaw summit was the Alliance’s decision to create an intelligence and security division from among its existing organizations. This move is long overdue. There is a plethora of threats facing Europe and the United States, and yet the West has a record of intelligence failures that has […]

Russia Syria

UkraineAlert

Jul 19, 2016

How to Avoid Becoming Ukraine’s Most Unpopular Politician

By Mykhailo Kukhar and Alexei Sobchenko

Ukraine is a relatively young country. Its political traditions are still developing and its electorate can still be easily beguiled by every new leader who promises to bring the nation out of the economic misery it was immersed in after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Ukraine is still desperately poor, ranked among the poorest […]

Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Jul 19, 2016

Russia Faces a Darkening Future. Is There Any Way Out?

By David Satter

Editor’s Note: This article is an excerpt from Satter’s new book, The Less You Know, the Better You Sleep: Russia’s Road to Terrorism and Dictatorship Under Yeltsin and Putin. Satter will give a book reading at Politics & Prose in Washington on July 24 at 5 pm. The best future for Russia would be the […]

Russia