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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

Aug 3, 2023

Agricultural obstacles may complicate Ukraine’s path toward EU membership

By
Aleksander Cwalina, Benton Coblentz

Ukraine continues to pursue EU integration even as the country defends itself against Russian invasion, but there are signs that some EU member states are not yet ready to integrate Ukraine’s powerful agricultural sector.

Civil Society
Conflict


UkraineAlert

Aug 3, 2023

Russia is targeting Ukrainian national identity with attacks on heritage sites

By
Mercedes Sapuppo

The Russian bombing of Odesa’s main Orthodox church in July was the latest in long line of attacks on Ukrainian heritage sites that indicate a deliberate campaign to erase Ukrainian cultural identity, writes Mercedes Sapuppo.

Civil Society
Conflict


UkraineAlert

Aug 3, 2023

Russian Orthodox leader Patriarch Kirill’s unholy war against Ukraine

By
Borys Gudziak

Russia’s Unholy War: Russian Orthodox Church leader Patriarch Kirill has provided the ideological justification for Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and Russian efforts to eliminate Ukrainian national identity.

Civil Society
Conflict


UkraineAlert

Aug 1, 2023

Ukraine is finally freeing itself from centuries of Russian imperialism

By
Taras Kuzio

Vladimir Putin hoped his full-scale invasion of Ukraine would mark the dawn of a new Russian Empire. Instead, it has strengthened Ukraine’s resolve to free itself from centuries of Russian imperialism, writes Taras Kuzio.

Civil Society
Conflict


UkraineAlert

Jul 31, 2023

Zelenskyy advisor: Defeat in Ukraine will spark collapse of Putin regime

By
Peter Dickinson

Ukrainian presidential advisor Mykhailo Podolyak says the Wagner mutiny has exposed Russia’s internal weakness and predicts battlefield defeats in Ukraine will spark the collapse of the Putin regime, writes Peter Dickinson.

Conflict
Defense Policy


UkraineAlert

Jul 27, 2023

Ukraine must not forget fight against corruption while battling Russia

By
Brian Mefford

The Ukrainian fightback against Russia’s invasion has won the admiration of the watching world, but corruption continues to threaten the country from within and could undo any battlefield success, warns Brian Mefford.

Civil Society
Conflict


UkraineAlert

Jul 27, 2023

Russia’s mass abduction of Ukrainian children may qualify as genocide

By
Vladyslav Havrylov

Vladimir Putin has already been charged with war crimes by the International Criminal Court over the mass abduction of Ukrainian children. Many believe the deportations quality as genocide, writes Vladyslav Havrylov.

Civil Society
Conflict


UkraineAlert

Jul 27, 2023

Ukraine’s digital revolution is proving vital for the country’s war effort

By
Mykhailo Fedorov

Ukraine’s remarkable resilience amid the biggest European war since World War II owes much to the country’s ongoing digital revolution, writes Ukrainian Minister for Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov.

Conflict
Cybersecurity


UkraineAlert

Jul 25, 2023

Rebuilding efforts should prioritize the key pillars of Ukraine’s democracy

By
Oleksii Antoniuk

International attention is currently focused on the physical reconstruction of postwar Ukraine’s devastated infrastructure, but rebuilding the country’s democratic institutions will be just as important, writes Oleksii Antoniuk.

Civil Society
Conflict


UkraineAlert

Jul 25, 2023

Ukraine’s gas storage facilities can play a key role in European energy security

By
Sergiy Makogon

Ukraine’s underground gas storage facilities are the largest in Europe and offer considerable untapped opportunities to enhance the continent’s energy security, writes Sergiy Makogon.

Conflict
Energy Markets & Governance

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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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