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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Jul 13, 2015

Ukraine’s Dangerous Drive to Decentralize

By
Maksym Khylko

Here’s Why the West Should Stop Pushing Decentralization Now  In the coming days the Ukrainian parliament is expected to debate a draft law that would amend Ukraine’s Constitution on decentralization to expand local governments’ powers. The West has enthusiastically encouraged Ukraine to embrace decentralization, provide special status for the Donbas, and hold local elections in […]


Russia

Ukraine


UkraineAlert

Jul 8, 2015

Here’s Why More Ukrainians Admire Nationalists, and Why the West Shouldn’t Freak Out

By
Alexander J. Motyl

Here’s a suggestion that will strike you as either painfully obvious or unnecessarily cumbersome. If you really want to understand contemporary Ukraine and Ukrainians, you need to know Ukrainian. If you accept that point, then discard all the writings by linguistically challenged analysts incapable of delving deeper into the Ukrainian psyche—and then go see two […]


Ukraine


UkraineAlert

Jul 8, 2015

Repression of Crimean Tatars Intensifies Under Russia, Says New Turkish Report

By
Melinda Haring

Russian authorities have forced Crimean Tatars to become Russian citizens and curtailed their freedoms of speech, language, education, and residence—as well as their right to a fair trial. That’s according to an independent group of Turkish scholars sent to Crimea to investigate human rights violations after Russia annexed the peninsula on March 18, 2014.


Russia

Ukraine


UkraineAlert

Jul 8, 2015

Here’s Why Armenia Is Not Ukraine

By
Sabine Freizer

The Electric Yerevan protest officially ended July 7, two weeks after it began as a reaction to the Armenian government’s 16.7 percent increase in electricity prices. But the social movement behind it will likely continue influencing Armenia until the country makes serious political reforms. Thousands marched on Yerevan’s Baghramyan Avenue—a main artery fronting the presidential […]


Russia


UkraineAlert

Jul 6, 2015

Ukraine Is More Important Than Greece

By
Anders Åslund

For one year, Russia has pursued a long, costly war of aggression against Ukraine. Its objective is obvious: to destabilize Ukraine so that the new democratic regime fails. Therefore, the West should adjust its goals accordingly to offer Ukraine financial support. The Kremlin has presented one false objective after the other for this aggression. On […]


Russia

Ukraine


UkraineAlert

Jul 6, 2015

History as a Weapon of Mass Deception

By
Ruben Gzirian

Leading up to the seventieth anniversary of Russia’s victory over Nazi Germany on May 9, seemingly every Russian media outlet buzzed about the unveiling of the country’s new premier tank, the Armata T-14. Outfitted with an advanced remote-controlled armed turret, a new 125-mm 2A82-1M smoothbore cannon, the new tank was rumored to come with a […]


Russia

Ukraine


UkraineAlert

Jul 2, 2015

Here’s How the Kremlin Manufactured a Civil War in Ukraine

By
Alina Polyakova

The war in eastern Ukraine is a Kremlin-manufactured conflict. The arrival of “little green men” in Crimea in February 2014 transformed the conflict from a domestic altercation between citizens and their government to an international crisis. Russian President Vladimir Putin publicly acknowledged in a government-sponsored documentary that he carefully planned and orchestrated the military takeover of […]


Russia

Ukraine


UkraineAlert

Jul 1, 2015

Putin Isn’t Winging It

By
Walter Zaryckyj

After US Secretary of State John Kerry’s visit to Sochi on May 12, a barrage of articles urged Western leaders to provide Russian President Vladimir Putin with an off-ramp for his various Ukrainian adventures. Even more disheartening than the volume was the growing diversity of reasons for giving Putin a pass. At least three arguments […]


Russia

Ukraine


UkraineAlert

Jul 1, 2015

Wake Up Europe. Peace Doesn’t Preserve Itself

By
Stephen Blank

Amid multiple signs of an impending battle in Ukraine, NATO and Ukraine have stepped up their response. But so has Russia. Ukrainian officials claim to have 60,000 troops in the field against an estimated 54,000 Russian forces in the Donbas. A large-scale conventional theater in the Donbas is a real danger this summer. But Moscow […]


Russia

Ukraine


UkraineAlert

Jul 1, 2015

Why Ukraine Struggles to Reform

By
Chris Miller

Listen to the proclamations of Ukraine’s political leaders and you might think the country is in the midst of rapid change. On June 4, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko declared that “reforms are the key word…The countdown of the period of reforms has started.” There is much talk of reform, but the reality is less impressive. […]


Ukraine

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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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

UkraineAlert

Jul 19, 2016

Tymoshenko and Kolomoyskyi Score Wins in Ukraine’s Special Elections

By Brian Mefford

Populism is on the rise in Ukraine, so it’s little surprise that Fatherland party leader Yulia Tymoshenko and oligarch Ihor Kolomoyskyi gained the most seats in Ukraine’s special parliamentary elections on July 17. Elections were held in seven districts across the country. Fatherland candidates won in Kherson and Poltava, while Kolomoyskyi’s candidate won in Volyn […]

Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Jul 18, 2016

Ukraine Needs to Abandon its Soviet Thinking Once and for All

By Basil A. Kalymon

Ukraine’s reform efforts continue to sputter on without any transformative results more than two years after former President Viktor Yanukovych fled to Moscow. The economy’s basic problems have not yet been addressed. It is still bogged down in its Soviet past, with populist forces making illusory promises that appeal to many voters’ Soviet-era mentality. The […]

Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Jul 18, 2016

How Ukraine Can Win the Information War in a Fact Free World

By Peter Dickinson

What media outlets do you trust? From the Brexit referendum and the US presidential race to Russia’s information war on Ukraine, it is becoming increasingly clear that we now live in a fact-free world where emotions reign supreme and truth is in the eye of the beholder. This trend first became apparent around the time […]

Russia Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Jul 13, 2016

New Generation of Digital Detectives Fight to Keep Russia Honest

By Eliot Higgins

Almost two years ago on July 17, 2014, a Buk missile downed Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 in eastern Ukraine, killing 298 passengers and their crew. The Russian government pushed evidence implying that a Ukrainian plane had shot down MH17, while the Dutch Safety Board concluded that a Buk missile caused the plane to break up […]

Russia Syria

UkraineAlert

Jul 13, 2016

Has Ukraine Really Changed?

By Michael McCarthy

On Sunday, July 17, voters in seven electoral districts in Ukraine will head to the polls to select their representatives for the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s parliament. This special election is set to fill vacancies, some due to ministerial appointments and elections to other offices, and in one case due to the death of an incumbent. […]

Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Jul 12, 2016

Ukraine’s Art Arsenal: Where Culture and Politics Crossed Swords

By Kateryna Smagliy

During his July 7 visit to Kyiv, US Secretary of State John Kerry announced that the United States will pour an additional $23 million in aid into Ukraine. Radiating sincerity, President Petro Poroshenko said this decision was a “vivid reflection of a deep trust that the United States has for Ukraine” as well as Ukraine’s […]

Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Jul 12, 2016

At Warsaw, NATO Agrees to Thwart Putin’s Revisionist Dreams

By John E. Herbst

NATO leaders finally demonstrated at the Warsaw Summit on July 8 and 9 that they understand the dangers of a revisionist Kremlin, and they approved significant measures to resist it. Unlike the Wales Summit in 2014, which noted that ISIS was an “existential threat to NATO” but made no similar claims about the marauding nuclear […]

Russia Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Jul 11, 2016

Euromaidan Leaders Launch New Party in Ukraine. Can It Succeed?

By Adrian Karatnycky

As Europe lurches in the direction of populism, xenophobic anti-immigrant attitudes, and anti-EU posturing, Ukraine appears to be tilting the other way. Located largely outside European discourse for the last twenty-five years, Ukraine is now odd man out, with pro-EU sentiments running high, xenophobic attitudes largely absent, and not one but two initiatives under way […]

Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Jul 11, 2016

No Longer a Secret: Ukraine is Europe’s New Frontier Market

By James Brooke

American, Canadian, and European Investors Quietly Descend on Kyiv Chestnut trees shade the streets, restaurants colonize sidewalks with “summer verandas,” and hemlines rise with the temperatures. Yes, it is summer again in Kyiv. But this summer, this garden city is seeing a new, discreetly invasive species: American and European investors who believe Ukraine is turning […]

Ukraine
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