UkraineAlert

UkraineAlert

UkraineAlert is a comprehensive online publication that provides regular news and analysis on developments in Ukraine’s politics, economy, civil society, and culture. UkraineAlert sources analysis and commentary from a wide-array of thought-leaders, politicians, experts, and activists from Ukraine and the global community. UkraineAlert has become a major publication in Ukraine’s news landscape and has established itself not only through its quality of content but also significant partnerships with English, Ukrainian, and Russian-language media through the country.

Stay Updated

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

Sloppy Thinking about War Helps No One

UkraineAlert
Sep 3, 2026

Putin cannot defeat NATO but he could divide and discredit the alliance

By
Peter Dickinson

If Russian President Vladimir Putin decides to attack NATO, his goal will be to divide and discredit the alliance rather than actually defeating it, writes Peter Dickinson.

Conflict
Defense Policy

Sloppy Thinking about War Helps No One

UkraineAlert
Aug 27, 2026

Ukrainians are not superheroes with endless powers of resilience

By
Lauren Van Metre, Elena Davlikanova

By celebrating Ukrainian resilience as an almost superhuman quality, the international community risks obscuring the much less glamorous reality that Ukrainians are actually ordinary people who have endured extraordinary violence for far too long, write Lauren Van Metre and Elena Davlikanova.

Civil Society
Conflict

Sloppy Thinking about War Helps No One

UkraineAlert
Aug 25, 2026

A cultural renaissance is reshaping national identity in wartime Ukraine

By
Davis Richardson

Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine is fueling a defiant cultural outpouring that is redefining and strengthening Ukrainian national identity in ways that challenge centuries of Kremlin imperialism, writes Davis Richardson.

Civil Society
Conflict

Latest analysis

UkraineAlert

Feb 6, 2017

Why Trump Will Soon Put Putin on Notice

By
Diane Francis

On February 1, military tough guy Mike Flynn, President Donald Trump’s National Security Advisor, put Iran “officially on notice” for testing a missile in violation of a UN resolution. By contrast, on January 31 the State Department issued a tepid statement condemning a murderous military assault on a Ukrainian town in the east without condemning […]


Russia

Ukraine


UkraineAlert

Feb 6, 2017

Changes in Washington, Brussels, and Berlin: What Do They Mean for Kyiv?

By
Andreas Umland

As US President Donald Trump introduces a new leadership style, political and economic crises play out in the EU, and tensions in Russia’s foreign and domestic affairs increase, the effects will be astutely felt in Ukraine—a country that has become a key battleground state in the confrontation between the world’s pro- and anti-Western forces. The […]


European Union

Germany


UkraineAlert

Feb 6, 2017

The End of the Rose for Saakashvili

By
Luis Navarro

Dynamic, revolutionary, modernizer, narcissist, opportunist: all of these are terms that have been used to describe Mikheil Saakashvili, the former president of Georgia and would-be Ukrainian leader. Over the course of a storied political career, all have been true to varying degrees. But what is true now is that Saakashvili has exceeded his expiration date […]


The Caucasus

Ukraine


UkraineAlert

Feb 2, 2017

Why Trump Cannot Ignore Ukraine

By
Adrian Karatnycky

US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin’s telephone conversation on January 28 occurred amid widespread speculation that Trump would lift sanctions on Russia. While no such announcements were even hinted at, the contours of the emerging US-Russia dialogue will have momentous consequences for European security and for Ukraine. The official White House readout […]


Russia

Ukraine


UkraineAlert

Feb 1, 2017

Four Easy Ways the EU Can Support Ukraine

By
Josh Cohen

Europe’s leadership seems to realize the challenge US President Donald Trump poses to the transatlantic alliance: German Chancellor Angela Merkel recently reminded Europe that “our fate is in our own hands,” while Guy Verhofstadt, president of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe, argues, “Europe must take its destiny and security in its own […]


European Union

Germany


UkraineAlert

Feb 1, 2017

From Fake News to Fake Opinion

By
Brian Mefford

A few weeks ago, a colleague asked why I was a part of an organization called the Center for Global Strategic Monitoring (also known as the CGS Monitor). Despite working in foreign policy for seventeen years, I had never heard of this organization. Imagine my surprise when I discovered my photograph and biography listed on […]


Europe & Eurasia

Russia


UkraineAlert

Feb 1, 2017

Are the Baltic States Really Indefensible?

By
Stephen Blank

One of the great canards of our time is that the Baltic states are indefensible. Although the reasons for making this argument are rarely spelled out, they revolve around the presumption that Russia not only enjoys local conventional superiority, but also that NATO cannot and often implicitly should not defend them and thereby make a […]


NATO

Northern Europe


UkraineAlert

Feb 1, 2017

Ukraine Needs Investment, Not Just Solidarity: Time for International Donors to Pony Up

By
Anders Åslund

After three years of heroic reforms following the Euromaidan, Ukraine has restored macroeconomic stability. The economy is growing again, but far too slowly. The expected growth is 2.5 percent in 2017. But it should swing up to six to eight percent, as it was for eight years in the early 2000s. The key now is […]


Russia

Ukraine


UkraineAlert

Jan 25, 2017

How to Trump-Proof Sanctions on Russia

By
Alina Polyakova

US President Donald J. Trump has said he is open to ending sanctions on Russia in exchange for a nuclear arms reduction deal with the Kremlin. “[L]et’s see if we can get some good deals with Russia,” he said. Trump has the authority to reverse sanctions because the Obama administration used executive orders to mandate […]


Russia

Ukraine


UkraineAlert

Jan 23, 2017

Beat Back Russia and Stand with Ukraine, Biden Urges at Davos

By
Diane Francis

Former Vice President Joe Biden’s last official speech was delivered January 18 in Davos at the World Economic Forum. It was a tour de force summoning leaders to protect the “liberal international order” against China, Iran, Russia, and others bent on destroying it. “This movement is principally led by Russia, working with every tool to […]


Russia

Ukraine

Load More

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

Sloppy Thinking about War Helps No One

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

Sloppy Thinking about War Helps No One

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

Sloppy Thinking about War Helps No One

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.

Learn more

Follow us on social media
and support our work

support our work

Content

UkraineAlert

Aug 2, 2016

Sloppy Thinking about War Helps No One

By Alexander J. Motyl

How likely is a war between the United States and Russia? According to Matthew Rojansky, director of the Wilson Center’s Kennan Institute, in a recent World Politics Review article, “a war between Russia and the United States is more likely today than at any time since the worst years of the Cold War.” That’s strong […]

NATO Russia

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
Load More