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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

A Bold and Optimistic Strategy for Europe

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

A Bold and Optimistic Strategy for Europe

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

A Bold and Optimistic Strategy for Europe

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

Apr 15, 2025

Russian missile strikes on Ukrainian civilians cast shadow over peace talks

By
Mercedes Sapuppo

Russia’s Palm Sunday ballistic missile strike on Sumy was the latest in a series of attacks on Ukrainian cities that have killed dozens of civilians and cast a long shadow over Donald Trump’s efforts to initiate peace talks between Moscow and Kyiv, writes Mercedes Sapuppo.

Conflict
Missile Defense


UkraineAlert

Apr 10, 2025

A pragmatic peace plan for Ukraine

By
Mykola Bielieskov

A pragmatic and sustainable peace is possible in Ukraine if Kyiv’s European partners dramatically increase their own defense spending while significantly strengthening the Ukrainian military, writes Mykola Bielieskov.

European Union
NATO


UkraineAlert

Apr 10, 2025

Ukrainian victims of war crimes need new approaches to justice

By
Nadia Volkova, Eric Witte, Arie Mora

Adopting new approaches to the issue of accountability for alleged war crimes committed during the Russian invasion of Ukraine can bring hope for justice and lay the foundations for a sustainable peace, write Nadia Volkova, Eric Witte, and Arie Mora.

Conflict
Freedom and Prosperity


UkraineAlert

Apr 9, 2025

Putin’s Arctic ambitions: Russia eyes natural resources and shipping routes

By
Bohdan Ustymenko

Russia’s plans to expand its influence in the Arctic region and dominate the Northern Sea Route together with China pose serious security challenges for the international community, writes Bohdan Ustymenko.

China
Conflict


UkraineAlert

Apr 8, 2025

Russia’s endless ceasefire excuses are proof that Putin does not want peace

By
Peter Dickinson

Russia’s endless ceasefire excuses are proof that Vladimir Putin does not want peace and remains committed to the complete destruction of Ukraine as a state and as a nation, writes Peter Dickinson.

Disinformation
Elections


UkraineAlert

Apr 4, 2025

Lithuanians pay tribute to US soldiers who died in training exercise tragedy

By
Agnia Grigas

Thousands of Lithuanians paid tribute this week to four United States soldiers who died during a training exercise in the Baltic nation, writes Agnia Grigas.

Conflict
Defense Policy


UkraineAlert

Apr 3, 2025

The West must stop seeking Putin’s permission for peace in Ukraine

By
Alyona Getmanchuk

If Western leaders are serious about achieving a lasting peace in Europe, they must move decisively to provide Ukraine with security guarantees without worrying whether Putin will agree or not, writes Alyona Getmanchuk.

Conflict
European Union


UkraineAlert

Apr 1, 2025

Russian advance slows in March as Putin’s invasion loses momentum

By
Peter Dickinson

Putin says his invading army is now poised to “finish off” the Ukrainian military, but in reality Russian forces continued to lose momentum in March 2025, with the Kremlin’s territorial gains reportedly falling for a fourth consecutive month, writes Peter Dickinson.

Conflict
Defense Industry


UkraineAlert

Apr 1, 2025

Peace on Putin’s terms would lead to a new era of international insecurity

By
Oleksandr Merezhko

As Trump seeks to end the war in Ukraine, it is apparent that any peace on Putin’s terms would signal the dawn of a dangerous new era marked by mounting instability, international aggression, and the looming threat of nuclear war, writes Oleksandr Merezhko.

China
Conflict


UkraineAlert

Apr 1, 2025

Still no consensus on using frozen Russian assets to support Ukraine

By
Mark Temnycky

Western leaders are still unable to reach a consensus on the use of around $300 billion in frozen Russian assets to finance the Ukrainian war effort, writes Mark Temnycky.

Conflict
European Union

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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

A Bold and Optimistic Strategy for Europe

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

A Bold and Optimistic Strategy for Europe

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

A Bold and Optimistic Strategy for Europe

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

Oct 12, 2015

A Bold and Optimistic Strategy for Europe

By Stephen Blank

US President Barack Obama recently derided critics of his foreign policies as offering merely mumbo-jumbo. Yet everyone can plainly see the administration’s shocking degree of across-the-board strategic incomprehension and incompetence in Europe and the Middle East. In fact, European Union diplomats publicly admit that confidence in US policies is plummeting throughout Europe. Therefore, I offer […]

Russia
Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Oct 7, 2015

The Forgotten War: A View From Ukraine’s Frontlines

By Ihor Kozak

For a brief moment, it felt like déjà vu. As an officer with the Canadian Armed Forces, I visited several hot spots, witnessing my share of misery and destruction. Now I am in the Donbas, the war-torn region of eastern Ukraine. Since its independence in 1991, Ukraine has struggled to shed its Soviet colonial past […]

Russia
Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Oct 7, 2015

Evolution, Not Revolution, Is the Way to Save Ukraine, Says Leading Anti-Corruption Crusader

By Diane Francis

Russian President Vladimir Putin is pivoting and wants to withdraw from the Donbas but keep Crimea, according to Iegor Soboliev, the head of the Ukrainian parliament’s anti-corruption committee. “He wants to give it back to us right now. He doesn’t need the Donbas,” he said in an interview on October 5. “Unfortunately, he will try […]

Russia
Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Oct 7, 2015

The Donbas Black Hole

By Irena Chalupa

What Russia hoped would be a small, victorious war has turned into the “geostrategic disaster of a new cold war,” writes Volodymyr Horbulin, a respected foreign policy analyst currently advising Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko. In an article in Dzerkalo Tyzhnia, Horbulin argues that the main participants in the war have exhausted themselves. The Donbas has […]

Russia
Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Oct 6, 2015

Don’t Blame the Oligarchs: Why Have Ukraine’s Cultural Reforms Gone Nowhere?

By Kateryna Smagliy

The demonizing of Ukrainian oligarchs as major impediments to democratization and reform has become a shared mantra of Western and domestic pundits alike. Whenever explaining the slow pace of Ukraine’s changes after the Euromaidan, analysts argue that oligarchs only gained influence and that by controlling whole chunks of the state apparatus, mass media, and economy, […]

Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Oct 5, 2015

Testing Putin’s Intentions

By John E. Herbst

The October 2 Paris Summit with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President François Hollande, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, and Russian President Vladimir Putin produced no breakthrough for peace in Ukraine. But it provided additional proof that, for the moment, Putin wants to lower tensions in the region. The parties spoke about three issues: the withdrawal […]

Russia
Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Oct 5, 2015

How to Fight Corruption in Ukraine

By Anders Åslund

We all agree: The greatest threat facing Ukraine, after its war with Russia, is corruption. But few agree how to do so, though it should not be that difficult. In 1998, Ukraine’s main gas importer, Ihor Bakai, stated that “all rich people in Ukraine made their money on Russian gas.” The technique was simple. A […]

Russia
Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Sep 30, 2015

Radars for Ukraine: Obama’s Strong Signal to Putin

By Adrian Karatnycky

A day after US President Barack Obama met with Russian President Vladimir Putin, the United States announced that it will ship long-range counter-battery radars to Ukraine. Obama authorized $20 million to provide the country with radars, bringing US security assistance to Ukraine up to $265 million. Obama’s message is clear: the United States will not […]

Russia
Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Sep 29, 2015

Ukraine Must Embrace Radical Reform Now

By Melinda Haring

If the Ukrainian government does not follow through with an ambitious reform agenda, public support will wane while dissatisfaction will increase, threatening political stability and the country’s future. “There is no time for slow evolutionary changes. Radical and revolutionary reforms are the only way to success,” warns a new report issued September 28.

Russia
Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Sep 29, 2015

Halfway There on National Unity in Ukraine

By Colin Cleary

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has lost the battle for the hearts and minds of the predominantly Russian-speaking regions of eastern and southern Ukraine that remain under Kyiv’s control. Support for those he calls “compatriots” has been at the core of Putin’s stated rationale for intervention in Ukraine. Polls show, however, that a clear majority of […]

Russia
Ukraine
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