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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

New Russian Management of the Donbas Signifies Putin May Be Ready to Negotiate

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

New Russian Management of the Donbas Signifies Putin May Be Ready to Negotiate

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

New Russian Management of the Donbas Signifies Putin May Be Ready to Negotiate

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

Jan 25, 2024

Putin’s Achilles Heel: Ukraine targets Russia’s vital but vulnerable energy industry

By
Peter Dickinson

Ukraine has begun 2024 by opening a new front in the war against Putin’s Russia with a series of long-range drone strikes on Russia’s vital but vulnerable energy industry, writes Peter Dickinson.

Conflict
Defense Technologies


UkraineAlert

Jan 25, 2024

Putin accused of fast-tracking Russian citizenship for abducted Ukrainian kids

By
Vladyslav Havrylov

Ukrainian officials have condemned a new decree signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin in early 2024 simplifying the process of conferring Russian citizenship on Ukrainian children abducted from wartime Ukraine.

Civil Society
Conflict


UkraineAlert

Jan 23, 2024

No European security without Ukrainian victory

By
Pavlo Zhovnirenko

As the Russian invasion of Ukraine approaches the two-year mark, Western leaders increasingly acknowledge that there can be no European security without Ukrainian victory, writes Pavlo Zhovnirenko.

Conflict
Defense Policy


UkraineAlert

Jan 22, 2024

Ukraine’s Black Sea success exposes folly of West’s “don’t escalate” mantra

By
Peter Dickinson

Ukraine’s remarkable success during 2023 in the Battle of the Black Sea can serve as a blueprint for victory over Putin’s Russia, writes Peter Dickinson.

Conflict
Defense Policy


UkraineAlert

Jan 18, 2024

Ukraine seeks future role as EU’s eastern customs hub

By
Vladyslav Suvorov

The ongoing reform of Ukraine’s customs service and the implementation of EU standards are fundamental for the country’s further European integration, writes Vladyslav Suvorov.

Conflict
Economy & Business


UkraineAlert

Jan 18, 2024

Europe steps up support for Ukraine in fight against Putin’s Russia

By
Diane Francis

There is now a growing realization across the continent that Putin is a European problem, and it is primarily up to Europe to stop him, writes Diane Francis.

Conflict
Defense Policy


UkraineAlert

Jan 16, 2024

Confident Putin boasts of Russian “conquests” in Ukraine

By
Peter Dickinson

Vladimir Putin is now openly referring to “Russian conquests” in Ukraine as he grows visibly in confidence amid mounting signs of Western weakness, writes Peter Dickinson.

Conflict
Disinformation


UkraineAlert

Jan 16, 2024

Russia faces fresh accusations of targeting journalists in Ukraine

By
Mercedes Sapuppo

A series of Russian attacks on hotels used by international journalists has sparked fresh accusations that Moscow is deliberately targeting the media in Ukraine, writes Mercedes Sapuppo.

Civil Society
Conflict


UkraineAlert

Jan 11, 2024

Arsenal of Autocracy: North Korea and Iran are arming Russia in Ukraine

By
Olivia Yanchik

Together with Iran and North Korea, Russia has succeeded in establishing an Arsenal of Autocrats that now threatens to plunge the world into a new era of war and insecurity, writes Olivia Yanchik.

Arms Control
Conflict


UkraineAlert

Jan 11, 2024

EU aspirations and Russian realities: Georgia at the geopolitical crossroads

By
Zviad Adzinbaia

2024 is shaping up to be a crucial year for Georgia’s EU aspirations. This could have implications for the wider region, while also challenging Russia’s own imperial ambitions in Georgia and beyond, writes Zviad Adzinbaia.

Civil Society
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

New Russian Management of the Donbas Signifies Putin May Be Ready to Negotiate

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

New Russian Management of the Donbas Signifies Putin May Be Ready to Negotiate

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

New Russian Management of the Donbas Signifies Putin May Be Ready to Negotiate

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

Jan 4, 2016

New Russian Management of the Donbas Signifies Putin May Be Ready to Negotiate

By Anders Åslund

On December 26, Russian President Vladimir Putin appointed one of his close, trusted aides, Boris Gryzlov, Russia’s representative in the Trilateral Contact Group on Ukraine, which concluded the two Minsk agreements on the Donbas in September 2014 and February 2015. This appointment suggests an important change in Russia’s policy toward Ukraine. Gryzlov is a heavyweight […]

Russia
Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Dec 22, 2015

Civil Service Reform May Revolutionize Ukraine

By Josh Cohen

It took a staggering sixteen months and it wasn’t easy. The old guard resisted it every step of the way. Ukraine’s parliament passed civil service reform, one of the highest priorities of the Euromaidan’s young reformers, on December 10. The Reanimation Package of Reforms (RPR), a civic group, described the development as “a real miracle.” […]

Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Dec 21, 2015

An Alliance Deterred

By Patrick Stephenson

NATO leaders intended the Alliance’s Trident Juncture military exercises, in part, to send a message to Russia that they would not hesitate to defend allied territory. That intention was commendable. But one wonders how exercises in the western Mediterranean will deter Russian ambitions that lie 3,000 km away in Ukraine and on the borders of […]

NATO
Russia

UkraineAlert

Dec 21, 2015

Nord Stream 2 Makes No Sense and Must Be Stopped

By Anders Åslund

Europe is saturated with energy and demand falls steadily, as Europe saves energy. From 2004 to 2014, the primary energy consumption in the European Union declined by 12 percent and its consumption of natural gas fell by 21 percent. Yet last June, Russia’s state-controlled natural gas corporation Gazprom announced its intention to build Nord Stream […]

Russia
Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Dec 21, 2015

The Kremlin’s Dangerous New Threat in Ukraine

By Ihor Kozak

Fighting continues to gradually intensify in eastern Ukraine. The Kremlin-backed militants are now using heavy weapons, including tanks, artillery, and ferocious Grad rocket systems, sporadically. Moscow’s rationale behind this latest escalation is to achieve a frozen conflict by gradually sabotaging the execution of the Minsk II ceasefire agreement. Russian President Vladimir Putin likely realizes that […]

Russia
Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Dec 21, 2015

“From Russia with Cash”: Dirty Money Unchecked in London

By Amanda Abrams

The numbers are staggering. Annually, $1 trillion is stolen by corrupt officials from countries around the globe. That money needs to be spent, or laundered, and much of it goes into big anonymous real estate deals in the United Kingdom, which is seeing £1 billion in unrecorded capital inflows per month. The main source of […]

Russia
Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Dec 17, 2015

The Revolutionary Path to Reform for Ukraine’s National Police

By Melinda Haring

Ukrainians are growing increasingly impatient with Ukraine’s lack of reforms. But the country’s police reforms are working, says Khatia Dekanoidze, the newly-appointed chief of the Ukrainian National Police. How does she know? “The number one tool to…measure effectiveness of police is trust,” Dekanoidze said on December 15 at an Atlantic Council event. Dekanoidze joined John […]

The Caucasus
Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Dec 16, 2015

“Ukraine is a work in progress by Putin,” Says General Wesley Clark

By Diane Francis

Retired US Army General Wesley Clark, former NATO Supreme Allied Commander, Europe, has campaigned since 2014 to convince Western governments to provide lethal aid to Ukraine to fend off Russia’s occupation of 9 percent of its territory. In a wide-ranging interview, he talked about why this hasn’t happened and about Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war […]

Russia
Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Dec 16, 2015

Should Ukraine Forget Its History?

By Alexander J. Motyl

On November 25, 2010, while on a state visit to Kyiv, Israel’s President Shimon Peres stated that, “If Ukrainians were to ask me for advice, I would say: forget history.” Coming from the president of a country steeped in history, the comment was at first glance bizarre. Directed at a country embroiled in seemingly endless […]

Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Dec 14, 2015

Thank You, George!

By Kateryna Smagliy

In his 2011 essay, “My Philanthropy,” George Soros described his approach to charitable giving. “I relish confronting harsh reality, and I am drawn to tackling seemingly insoluble problems,” he wrote. Indeed, it is with a consistent determination, generosity, and unwavering faith in Ukraine’s potential that Soros established the International Renaissance Foundation (IRF) twenty-five years ago […]

Ukraine
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