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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

Jan 16, 2019

Ukraine’s Euromaidan Democrats Have No Shot at the Presidency, but What About Parliament?

By
Andreas Umland

Ukraine’s anti-oligarchic forces have finally started the process of forming a broad pro-reform coalition in advance of the 2019 presidential and parliamentary elections. On January 11, a congress of various reformist groups announced its support for the presidential candidacy of former Minister of Defense Anatoliy Hrytsenko. While the meeting was largely an event of Hrytsenko’s […]


Ukraine


UkraineAlert

Jan 16, 2019

How Will Ukraine’s Next President View the World? A Look at the Top 5 Candidates

By
Mykola Vorobiov

Ukraine’s presidential election season is in full-swing. After the holiday recess, the campaign is getting even more dynamic with about forty candidates who have already declared. While the ratings fluctuate almost daily, the top five remain steady, so it’s time to dig in and start evaluating their various views. Below we’ve analyzed their foreign policy […]


Russia


Ukraine


UkraineAlert

Jan 16, 2019

The Best Ukraine Can Hope for with Russia in 2019

By
Anders Åslund

Donald Trump has been president of the United States for two years, but it remains uncertain whether he has a Ukraine policy. His administration does, but Trump is famously superficial in his knowledge. Trump has repeatedly praised Russian President Vladimir Putin, hardly said anything negative about Russia, and insisted on the need to cut sanctions […]


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Ukraine


UkraineAlert

Jan 11, 2019

Two More Ways to Make Ukraine Independent

By
Olga Bielkova

Ukraine’s Orthodox Church just broke with Moscow, and it’s time for us to move farther away from Russia in the energy sector as well. Even though it is an election year, Kyiv must deliver on the country’s two strategic priorities: increasing gas production in Ukraine and jointly operating Ukraine’s transmission system. After all, energy independence […]


Ukraine


UkraineAlert

Jan 10, 2019

Why a Comedian’s Bid for Ukraine’s Presidency Is No Laughing Matter

By
Andreas Umland

Most experts have reacted negatively to the announcement that Ukrainian comedian Volodymyr Zelenskiy will stand in the presidential election in spring 2019. Indeed, Zelenskiy’s candidacy is problematic for at least three reasons. Still, for all the skepticism, Zelenskiy’s participation in the race may also have a bright side.


Ukraine


UkraineAlert

Jan 9, 2019

Ukraine’s 2019 elections may be completely unpredictable but five things are certain

By
Brian Mefford

2019 is election year in Ukraine. Ukrainians will select a new president this spring and a new parliament in the fall. Even though the outcome of the presidential race is unpredictable, there are five things about this political cycle that are not. First, no openly pro-Russian candidate can win and this is a major change […]


Russia


Ukraine


UkraineAlert

Jan 8, 2019

Dispatch from the road: Ukraine’s most impressive civil society project is where?

By
Melinda Haring

One could be forgiven for mistaking thirty-six-year-old Yuriy Fylyuk as just another of the bearded foodie entrepreneurs who dominate Ukraine’s culinary scene. But the soft spoken Fylyuk is far more.  


Civil Society


Ukraine


UkraineAlert

Jan 8, 2019

Even Out of Government, Former Finance Minister Danyliuk Has Big Plans for Ukraine

By
Melinda Haring

It was June 5 and Ukraine’s ebullient and energetic finance minister was under tremendous strain. The Economist had just reported that forty-three-year-old Oleksandr Danyliuk was about to be sacked after speaking out too many times about corruption at the highest levels. He’d made too many enemies, including the president and prime minister.   But Danyliuk is […]


Russia


Ukraine


UkraineAlert

Jan 8, 2019

How Ukraine’s Next President Can Turn the Country Around

By
Anders Åslund

On March 31, Ukraine will hold the first round of its presidential election. This is a tremendous opportunity to restart Ukraine’s reforms. The election debate needs to focus on the most important issue, namely the enforcement of property rights. Five years after the Revolution of Dignity and Russia’s invasion, Ukraine’s situation remains precarious. The rule […]


Russia


Ukraine


UkraineAlert

Jan 6, 2019

Ukraine’s new Orthodox Church free from Moscow but fight isn’t over

By
John E. Herbst

Even with limitations, the tomos is a very good thing for Ukraine and a victory for Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, who has worked hard, along with Patriarch Filaret of the now-defunct Kyiv Patriarchate.


Ukraine

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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.

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UkraineAlert

Jun 22, 2016

Europe’s Short Memory and Ukraine’s Long Crisis

By Melinda Haring

“People have forgotten that there’s a real humanitarian situation and a real need in a European country,” said Jock Mendoza-Wilson, director of international and investor relations at System Capital Management, during a recent Atlantic Council panel examining the crisis in Ukraine. In fact, he said, six hundred thousand people on Ukraine’s contact line live in […]

Russia Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Jun 22, 2016

Now’s the Time to Block Nord Stream 2 and Step Up Ukraine’s Energy Diplomacy

By Olga Bielkova

Ukraine—a country that rejected aggression and militarization when it broke away from the Soviet Union—is fighting three wars today: the front in the east against an expansionist power, the battle within to defeat cronyism and corruption, and an economic war to reorient trade flows and modernize its economy. The world’s attention, as well as that […]

European Union Germany

UkraineAlert

Jun 22, 2016

EU Renews Sanctions on Crimea but Overlooks Plight of Crimean Tatars

By Eleanor Knott

In April 2016, Crimea’s de facto authorities banned the Crimean Tatar Mejlis—the organ of political representation for Crimean Tatars on the peninsula—under the pretext of “extremism.” Increasingly, Crimean Tatars seem to be framed as “extremist” just for being themselves. A historically nonviolent community, Crimean Tatars were the most visible and vociferous opponents of the region’s […]

Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Jun 21, 2016

The Painful Journeys of Ukraine’s IDPs

By Kateryna Moroz

Two years ago this past April, the words “internal displacement” first appeared in the Ukrainian media. The term was brought by UN agencies that, along with local nongovernmental organizations, worked on a legal framework to regulate the phenomenon, which was completely new to Ukraine. Before then, journalists, volunteers, and even government officials called those who […]

Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Jun 21, 2016

Germany’s Socialists, Russia’s Fascism, and Ukrainian Deaths

By Alexander J. Motyl

On June 15, Ukraine’s Minister of Defense Stepan Poltorak informed NATO that Ukraine had suffered 623 battle deaths in its war with Russia in 2016. This astoundingly large figure—which amounts to three to four deaths per day—demonstrates conclusively that Russia and its proxies have no intention whatsoever of adhering to the Minsk accords. The number […]

Russia Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Jun 20, 2016

Why the West Was Wrong about Ukraine’s New Government

By John E. Herbst

It is too early to draw firm conclusions, but Prime Minister Volodymyr Groisman’s and Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko’s early moves indicate that Ukraine is still on the reform path. There was understandable pessimism when Groisman assumed office in April with a new government that did not include the previous cabinet’s strongest reformers. Critics also cast […]

Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Jun 15, 2016

Ukraine’s New Reform Plan Is Better but Not Radical Enough

By Hlib Vyshlinsky

Two months ago, the Ukrainian parliament appointed Volodymyr Groisman as the country’s new prime minister. “I will show you how the country should be managed,” he said in his appointment speech. Groisman’s predecessor Arseniy Yatsenyuk was widely criticized for lacking a detailed action plan, so the new prime minister began managing the country from exactly […]

Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Jun 15, 2016

Ukraine’s Grassroots Transformation of Education

By Yuriy Didula and Nadiya Mykhalevych

In today’s globalized world, education is perhaps the greatest challenge in a developing country. To keep pace with new technology and innovation, young people must possess not only basic skills but also be proactive, creative, innovative, and able to adjust quickly. According to the New Vision for Education report compiled at the World Economic Forum in […]

Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Jun 14, 2016

Odious Film about Russian Whistle-Blower Screens at Newseum

By Natalia Arno and Melinda Haring

On June 13, the Newseum did what the European Parliament was too principled to do: it showed The Magnitsky Act, Russian filmmaker Andrei Nekrasov’s controversial new film about Sergei Magnitsky. Magnitsky was a Russian tax lawyer who investigated a tax fraud scheme on behalf of his client, British-American financier William Browder. In 2008, Magnitsky accused […]

Russia Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Jun 13, 2016

Counting Sheep Is Courageous, Soulful, and Important: A Review

By Diane Francis

“Counting Sheep” is a “guerrilla folk opera” that guides audiences on an immersive and soulful journey through Ukraine’s Revolution of Dignity. Its creators are Mark and Marichka Marczyk who met and fell in love in Kyiv during the protests of 2013 and 2014. Mark is a talented Canadian musician of Ukrainian heritage and Marichka Kudriavtseva […]

Ukraine