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

Latest analysis


UkraineAlert

Nov 9, 2023

Historic progress: Ukraine receives green light for EU membership talks

By
Peter Dickinson

The European Commission this week recommended opening EU membership negotiations with Ukraine. The move represents historic progress at a time when Ukrainians are fighting to defend their independence and their right to choose a European future, writes Peter Dickinson.

Conflict
Corruption


UkraineAlert

Nov 7, 2023

Ukraine reports fresh success in the Battle of the Black Sea

By
Peter Dickinson

Ukraine’s success in the Battle of the Black Sea should convince the country’s Western partners to finally abandon their cautious approach and provide the Ukrainian military with the weapons they need to defeat Russia, writes Peter Dickinson.

Conflict
Defense Policy


UkraineAlert

Nov 7, 2023

Peace is impossible while Vladimir Putin denies Ukraine’s right to exist

By
Taras Kuzio

While calls to end the bloodshed in Ukraine are perfectly understandable, anyone advocating a compromise peace deal with Vladimir Putin must first reckon with the genocidal reality of Russia’s invasion, writes Taras Kuzio.

Conflict
Democratic Transitions


UkraineAlert

Nov 2, 2023

Faith leaders highlight Russian religious persecution in occupied Ukraine

By
Shelby Magid, Mercedes Sapuppo

A delegation of Ukrainian faith leaders recently visited the United States and participated in a panel discussion to address Russia’s policies of religious persecution and repression in occupied Ukraine.

Civil Society
Conflict


UkraineAlert

Nov 2, 2023

Putin will win unless the West finally commits to Ukrainian victory

By
Ivan Verstyuk

Russian dictator Vladimir Putin is more confident than ever that time is on his side in Ukraine and believes the Western world ultimately lacks the political will to oppose him, writes Ivan Verstyuk.

Conflict
Defense Industry


UkraineAlert

Oct 31, 2023

How to bridge the Ukrainian government’s wartime funding gap

By
Anna Kornyliuk

With the current war now widely expected to continue into 2024 and possibly beyond, Ukraine will need significant additional financial support from its partners in order to defeat Putin’s Russia, writes Anna Kornyliuk.

Conflict
Economy & Business


UkraineAlert

Oct 31, 2023

ATACMS missiles create new dilemmas for Russian army in Ukraine

By
Mykola Bielieskov

Two weeks since Ukraine’s President Zelenskyy first confirmed delivery of ATACMS missiles from the US, reports continue to mount of highly destructive ATACMS strikes against the Russian army in Ukraine, writes Mykola Bielieskov.

Conflict
Defense Industry


UkraineAlert

Oct 31, 2023

Attempted airport pogrom highlights rising antisemitism in Putin’s Russia

By
Joshua Stein

An attempted pogrom in southern Russia’s Republic of Dagestan has sent shock waves around the world and raised serious questions about the rising tide of antisemitism in Putin’s Russia, writes Joshua Stein.

Conflict
Disinformation


UkraineAlert

Oct 26, 2023

Arming Ukraine is cheap compared to the far higher price of Russian victory

By
Peter Dickinson

Anyone concerned by the cost of supporting the Ukrainian war effort should consider the far higher price the Western world would have to pay in order to stop Putin following a Russian victory in Ukraine, writes Peter Dickinson.

Conflict
Defense Industry


UkraineAlert

Oct 24, 2023

Ukraine’s EU membership bid set to receive big boost in November

By
Peter Dickinson

The European Commission is expected to give Ukraine the green light to begin EU accession talks in early November, marking a significant step forward in the country’s European integration ambitions, writes Peter Dickinson.

Conflict
Democratic Transitions

spotlight

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.

Follow us on social media
and support our work

Content

UkraineAlert

Aug 11, 2015

Even After Iran Deal, Putin Won’t Get His Way in Ukraine

By John E. Herbst

Ever since US Secretary of State John Kerry visited Russian President Vladimir Putin in Sochi last May, Ukraine’s friends have been concerned that in its eagerness to ensure Kremlin support for a deal with Iran, the White House was willing to let Putin have his way in Ukraine. Advocates of this outlook point to five […]

Iran
Russia

UkraineAlert

Aug 10, 2015

Here’s Why I’m Hopeful About Eastern Ukraine

By Yuriy Didula

In July, residents of Slovyansk and Kramatorsk marked the first anniversary of liberation from the occupation of Russian-backed separatists. Both cities experienced their rule for nearly four months in 2014. In the last year, marches, concerts, and city lights with slogans promoting peace have helped reinforce a growing sense of national pride. And yet a […]

Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Aug 10, 2015

Why Eastern Ukraine Matters to Ramzan Kadyrov

By Ruben Gzirian

No Instagram account is more entertaining, more dumbfounding, and more terrifying than that of Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov. On any given day, one is guaranteed to see video clips ranging from Kadyrov praying before dawn in the Akhmad Kadyrov Mosque to playing soccer at the FC Terek facilities (Kadyrov was the President of FC Terek […]

Russia
Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Aug 10, 2015

Making Ukraine the Breadbasket of Europe Again

By Oksana Khomei

Ukraine’s system of agricultural production is paternalistic, dating back to the Soviet era, when bureaucrats constantly intruded into the production process. Such a strategy may have suited the planned economy, but in Ukraine’s market economy it has only spawned widespread corruption, because authorities cannot inspect every farm and business in person. EU standards allow producers […]

Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Aug 5, 2015

Moscow’s Veto of MH17 Tribunal: A Blunder of Potentially Huge Proportions

By Ariel Cohen

On July 29, Russia vetoed a draft UN resolution seeking to set up a tribunal to prosecute those responsible for shooting down a Malaysia Airlines jumbo jet more than a year ago. By exercising its Security Council veto against the resolution, Moscow has lost control of the process, committing a possible error that may ultimately […]

Russia
Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Aug 4, 2015

Debunking Russia’s Narrative of Rampant Anti-Semitism in Ukraine Again

By Halya Coynash

The Congress of National Communities of Ukraine’s latest reports on xenophobia in Ukraine have struck another blow to Moscow’s persistent attempts to present the country as a hotbed of anti-Semitism. The reports make no mention of the “pogroms” alleged by the Russian Foreign Ministry, nor do they back Russian President Vladimir Putin’s assertion of a […]

Russia
Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Aug 3, 2015

Retribution in the New Crimea

By Melinda Haring

In March 2015, the Atlantic Council and Freedom House published a report by Crimean journalist Andrii Klymenko showing how Russia’s occupation and annexation of Crimea has unleashed an ongoing chain of human rights violations across the peninsula. Five days after release of the report—Human Rights Abuses in Russian-Occupied Crimea—Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) charged Klymenko […]

Russia
Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Aug 3, 2015

How Oligarchs Have Ruined Ukraine’s Economy and How to Fix It

By Basil A. Kalymon and Oleh Havrylyshyn

Ukraine finds itself in an economic crisis of massive proportions. In the past twelve months, its GDP has contracted by over 7.5 percent, the national deficit exceeds 10 percent, its currency has lost more than 50 percent of its value, its banks are insolvent and the national debt-to-GDP ratio has ballooned to more than 100 […]

Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Jul 31, 2015

Russia Threatens Ukrainian Pilot Nadiya Savchenko with 25-Year Jail Term

By Irena Chalupa

Nadiya Savchenko, Ukraine’s most famous female military officer, has languished in a Moscow prison for more than a year since Moscow-backed separatists captured her in eastern Ukraine last June and smuggled across the border to Russia shackled, her head covered by a sack. Now her captors have moved her again—and again under the cover of […]

Russia
Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Jul 30, 2015

Euromaidan’s Shockwaves: An Exile in Ukraine Recalls Fleeing his Native Kyrgyzstan

By Matthew Kupfer

On a recent warm summer night, Ilya Lukash sat in a bar near Kyiv’s trendy Kontraktova Square, drinking a beer and chatting with his friends in Ukrainian, Russian, and English. In a red T-shirt emblazoned with patriotic Ukrainian slogans, he could easily have been any one of the countless young, educated, pro-democracy Ukrainians who in […]

Central Asia
Russia