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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.


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Latest analysis


UkraineAlert

Nov 2, 2018

Making Sense of Russia’s New Draconian Sanctions on Ukraine

By
Anders Åslund

On November 1, the Russian government imposed severe economic sanctions on 322 Ukrainian individuals and 68 Ukrainian companies. These are the most extensive sanctions imposed by any country in the tit-for-tat confrontation between Russia and Western countries over Ukraine. Curiously, these sanctions are explicitly only economic, declaring that any assets on the territory of the […]


Russia


Ukraine


UkraineAlert

Nov 1, 2018

Russia Understands Ukraine’s Geopolitical Importance but Does the West?

By
Peter Dickinson

As Ukraine prepares to mark five years since the start of the country’s Euromaidan protests, the repercussions continue to reverberate across the globe. What began as an ordinary protest movement soon morphed into a revolution that sparked a Russian invasion and ushered in a new Cold War. Without the Euromaidan, Russia and the West would […]


Russia


Ukraine


UkraineAlert

Nov 1, 2018

Ukrainian Populists Still Think They Can Be Pro-EU but Anti-IMF. They’re Wrong.

By
Taras Kuzio

Ukrainian voters have long believed that in her drive for power, long-time politician Yulia Tymoshenko will do and say anything. This is not unusual for populists who routinely make promises that cannot be met and are flexible with the truth. That characteristic has been on display since Tymoshenko announced her intention to run for the […]


Ukraine


UkraineAlert

Oct 31, 2018

Georgia, Where Everything Old Is Maybe New Again?

By
Luis Navarro

On October 28, Georgians went to the polls to elect their fifth president, possibly for the last time. Neither candidate, both former foreign ministers, won outright. An unprecedented run-off is slated for December 2.    The United National Movement (UNM) presidential candidate Grigol Vashadze achieved an unexpectedly strong showing (37.7 percent) against the ruling Georgian […]


Russia


The Caucasus


UkraineAlert

Oct 30, 2018

10 Names Russia Hopes You’ll Never Know

By
Vitalii Rybak

Since Russia annexed Crimea in 2014, Moscow and its proxies have put dozens of Ukrainian and Crimean Tatar political prisoners behind bars. However, there are many other people in Russian prisons who have been incarcerated for their unwillingness to bow down to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s regime. The fabrication of these cases has been refined […]


Russia


Ukraine


UkraineAlert

Oct 30, 2018

Five ways to entice Ukrainians to come home

By
Andy Hunder

Approximately five million Ukrainians, roughly 25 percent of the country’s economically active population, work abroad.


Macroeconomics


Migration


UkraineAlert

Oct 29, 2018

How Ukraine’s Presidential Race Is Shaping Up

By
Mykola Vorobiov

Ukraine’s presidential race is in full swing, even though the official campaign period has not yet begun. At this point, incumbent President Petro Poroshenko and former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko may make the second round; no candidate is expected to take 50 percent in the first round. If elections were held now, Tymoshenko would take […]


Ukraine


UkraineAlert

Oct 24, 2018

Three More Reasons to Be Bullish on Ukraine

By
Melinda Haring

Ukraine’s civil society is realizing an unfortunate fact: reforming the country is going to be more of a marathon than a sprint. Consequently, pro-reform advocates have had to adjust their expectations. Describing her hopes for the speed of change in Ukraine, Anticorruption Action Center executive director Daria Kaleniuk said that she and her colleagues now […]


Ukraine


UkraineAlert

Oct 24, 2018

Ukraine Can Succeed But It Won’t Happen Overnight

By
Andrii Osadchuk

With every new election cycle, Ukrainians freeze in hope and despondency. Each time, we face an inner conflict between the desire for fair and systemic change and the fear and distrust acquired from experience. We’ve been trying to break out of this vicious cycle for twenty-seven years, and each time we try, the enthusiasm subsides […]


Ukraine


UkraineAlert

Oct 23, 2018

How Ukraine’s Cities Are Sharing Their Good Ideas

By
Iryna Ozymok

Today, 54 percent of the world’s population lives in cities, and by 2030, two-thirds likely will. Mayors are city managers, responsible not only for quality of life issues like access to water, roads, and infrastructure; they’re also facing global challenges like climate change, security, and migration.


Ukraine

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Content

UkraineAlert

Mar 17, 2016

Why the Kremlin Fears Savchenko

By Aaron Korewa

When Timothy Snyder, professor of central European history at Yale and vocal supporter of the Euromaidan movement, was asked why he has chosen to become such a strong defender of Ukraine, his response was “I don’t like when there is too much lying.” That is an excellent reason. Judging by Nadiya Savchenko’s gesture to the […]

Europe & Eurasia Russia

UkraineAlert

Mar 17, 2016

Yes, Putin Really Believes His Own Propaganda

By Ben Nimmo

Russia’s worldview is conditioned by a conspiracy theory: the United States is out to get her. The trouble with this delusion is that Russia’s actions and policy decisions appear to be built on it. To understand and predict Russia’s behavior, Western policymakers need to grasp the fact that this delusion is real for Russia’s leadership.

Russia Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Mar 16, 2016

Putin’s Crimea Is No Vacation

By Melinda Haring and Alina Polyakova

Two years ago on March 16, Crimeans voted in a sham referendum for Russia to annex Crimea. Has life improved for the approximately two million people who live there?  Not at all. On every measure, from the economy to its treatment of minorities, the beautiful peninsula has become a shell of what it once was. […]

Russia Ukraine

Testimony

Mar 15, 2016

Six Ways the US Can Defeat Putin and Bolster Ukraine

By Ian Brzezinski

The transatlantic community has a significant stake in assuring Ukraine’s trajectory as a modern, democratic, and prosperous European state. A strategy to assist Ukraine in accomplishing that objective must impose greater economic and geopolitical costs on Russia for its aggression, enhance Ukraine’s capacity for self-defense, assist Kyiv’s efforts to reform its political and economic institutions, […]

Russia Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Mar 15, 2016

The World According to Sergei Lavrov (and Putin)

By Alexei Sobchenko

Russian President Vladimir Putin recently blamed Vladimir Lenin for planting ideas that led to the collapse of the Soviet Union. It was a telling statement in view of the upcoming centennial anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, which had an enormous impact on world history. We still don’t know how the Kremlin will commemorate this […]

Russia

UkraineAlert

Mar 9, 2016

Ukraine’s New Political Law Privileges Party Bosses

By Brian Mefford

On February 16, the same day it almost approved no confidence in the government, Ukraine’s parliament successfully passed law #3700 on its eighteenth attempt. While the law was overshadowed by the controversy over the vote on the government, the legislation is the equivalent of a new “January 16th law” for Ukrainian politicians. What is a […]

Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Mar 9, 2016

What Nadiya Savchenko’s Example Can Teach the West

By Jeffrey Gedmin

March 5 marked the sixty-third anniversary of Joseph Stalin’s death. A friend texted me a photo of a poster from a Moscow bus shelter, a death mask of the Soviet dictator, captioned with the words: “That one died, this one will, too,” presumably a reference to Russia’s current ruler Vladimir Putin. There’s a certain sad […]

Russia Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Mar 8, 2016

Will Ukraine’s Intrepid Female Pilot be Swapped for Russian Officers Held by Ukraine?

By Irena Chalupa

“Freedom does not have a price! I don’t believe anyone in Russia! I’m not afraid and I will not beg!”  These may be some of the last words that Nadiya Savchenko, Ukraine’s most famous political prisoner held by Russia, will speak. On March 3, the day her trial was scheduled to end and she was […]

Russia Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Mar 8, 2016

The Church That Stalin Couldn’t Kill: Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church Thrives Seventy Years after Forced Reunification

By Nadia M. Diuk

Seventy years ago, on March 8-10, 1946, under orders from Josef Stalin, an illegal “synod” of Kremlin-controlled clergy gathered in the city of Lviv, recently absorbed into the Soviet Union as part of the settlement of World War II. The purpose of the gathering was to liquidate the independent existence of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic […]

Russia Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Mar 7, 2016

Why Does Putin Surprise Us Again and Again?

By Stephen Blank

From Great Britain to the Black Sea, Russia is waging a constant, unceasing information war against virtually every European government. This war takes many forms, but information war in essence entails what Peter Pomerantsev called the weaponization of information in the form of lies, misinformation, propaganda, exploitation of agents of influence, and reflexive actions inducing […]

Russia Ukraine