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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

May 10, 2017

Q&A: Will We Ever Get to the Bottom of Russian Hacking in the US Election?

By
Melinda Haring

President Donald Trump fired FBI director James Comey on May 9. Comey had been leading a criminal investigation into whether Trump’s advisers colluded with the Russian government to influence the results of the 2016 presidential election. Trump justified the firing by pointing to the way Comey handled the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private email server, […]


Russia


UkraineAlert

May 10, 2017

Ukraine Needs Tough Love and IMF Conditionality, Leshchenko Urges

By
Diane Francis

“The IMF should not give one more dollar to Ukraine until the Anti-Corruption Court is in operation,” said Sergii Leshchenko in a May 9 telephone interview. Leshchenko is a hero of the Revolution of Dignity, a lanky and serious journalist-turned-politician who has risked his life and career for years to fight corruption in Ukraine. He’s […]


Ukraine


UkraineAlert

May 10, 2017

Russia Deploys Banned Missile and Brags about It

By
Semen Kabakaev

Thirty years ago, on December 8, 1987, Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan signed the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF), which entered into force on June 1, 1988. The parties pledged not to produce, test or deploy ballistic and cruise land-based missiles of medium range (from 1,000 to 5,500 kilometers). Elimination of all declared missiles and […]


Russia


Ukraine


UkraineAlert

May 9, 2017

How to Win Friends and Influence People on a Global Scale

By
Alexandra Hall Hall

Dale Carnegie’s famous self-help book, How to Win Friends and Influence People, centers on investing in personal relationships in order to achieve success. President Donald Trump has demonstrated an instinctive understanding of this principle in the way he has interacted with a succession of world leaders, whether over a round of golf at Mar-a-Lago or […]


The Caucasus


UkraineAlert

May 8, 2017

How Trump Can Fix US-Russia Ties

By
Alexander Vershbow

US President Donald Trump will have his first high-level meeting with a Russian representative this week, when Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov comes to the White House following a scheduled meeting with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. The stakes are high: about the only thing on which Moscow and Washington agree is that relations are at […]


Russia


Ukraine


UkraineAlert

May 5, 2017

How Not to Become a War Criminal: A Guide for Russian Soldiers

By
Valentyn Badrak, Lada Roslycky, Mykhailo Samus, and Volodymyr Kopchak

Few Russian citizens view the Kremlin’s invasion into Ukraine as unlawful. Not many Russian servicemen realize that when they are fighting there, they fight as unnamed, faceless soldiers who lack the protection of international pacts, including the Geneva Conventions. They not only risk death, injury, or abandonment by the state that sent them there; they […]


Russia


Ukraine


UkraineAlert

May 4, 2017

Why Is the Kremlin So Fixated on Phantom Fascists?

By
Peter Dickinson

In April, reports emerged of Kremlin plans to launch a major smear campaign against Russian opposition figurehead Alexey Navalny. Within days, an expensive-looking attack video had appeared anonymously on YouTube, comparing Navalny to Adolf Hitler. The Russian authorities denied any connection to the video, but few believed them. After all, branding opponents as fascists is […]


Russia


Ukraine


UkraineAlert

May 3, 2017

Will Ukrainians Ever Trust the Press?

By
Adam Tismaneanu

Journalism has changed since the Euromaidan, but most Ukrainians still don’t trust the media. Oligarchs continue to own a majority of the major outlets. Since 2014, reformers have established a public broadcasting service and are in the process of privatizing several hundred state-owned newspapers. Those steps may not be enough. The media suffers from a […]


Ukraine


UkraineAlert

May 3, 2017

Mikheil Saakashvili: “By my own standards, I failed on every account in Odesa.”

By
Diane Francis

Mikheil Saakashvili strode into the Toronto Four Seasons Hotel on a Saturday morning, all smiles and apologies for being late. The café was empty, except for myself, a handful of patrons, and a young waiter who had recently immigrated from Ukraine. I told him who I was waiting for and he smiled. Saakashvili is only […]


Russia


The Caucasus


UkraineAlert

May 2, 2017

Does RT Really Believe in Free Speech? Prove It

By
Jeffrey Gedmin

RT aims to discredit the United States in a straightforward way. The Kremlin-funded television network—established in 2005, operating in English, Arabic, and Spanish—doesn’t report on America and the West warts and all, but rather focuses single-mindedly on warts alone. That’s not all. Sins of omission, falsehoods, and conspiracy theories—like Ukraine shooting down the Malaysian Airlines […]


France


Russia

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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

Nov 4, 2015

Poroshenko Not Serious About Fighting Corruption, Says Anticorruption Reformer

By Melinda Haring

Bogdan Yakymiuk radiates optimism. But despite his quick smile, the thirty-seven-year old reformer is deadly serious when it comes to corruption. “Over 30 percent of our yearly budget is being stolen one way or another through corruption,” Yakymiuk said in an October 27 interview in Washington.

Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Nov 4, 2015

“We Must Keep the Focus on Ukraine and Spread the Truth,” Says New Ukrainian Ambassador

By Larry Luxner

Valeriy Chaly, Ukraine’s new ambassador in Washington, sees the United States as his country’s “main strategic partner” and says he wants to use that bilateral relationship “to resolve the crisis created by Russia in Eastern Europe and find the best model of security in this part of the world.” Chaly, 45, presented his White House […]

Russia Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Nov 3, 2015

The Motivations Behind Poroshenko’s New Anticorruption Drive

By John E. Herbst

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko’s government appears to have launched a new anticorruption drive with the October 31 detention of Gennadiy Korban, a close associate of oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky and the leader of Ukrop, a political party funded by Kolomoisky. The authorities arrested Korban following an investigation that began last year into the assault on government […]

Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Nov 2, 2015

Ukraine Must Not Pay Russia Back

By Anders Åslund

On December 20, Ukraine is supposed to pay Russia $3 billion in return for a Eurobond that Russian President Vladimir Putin issued in December 2013. Ukraine has no reason to pay. In February 2014, the Kremlin launched military aggression against Ukraine, first annexing Crimea and later pursuing military subversion in southern and eastern Ukraine. For […]

Russia Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Nov 2, 2015

Why the Realists Were Wrong About the War in Ukraine

By Alexander Motyl

The ongoing ceasefire in eastern Ukraine may or may not lead to a lasting peace, but it has already had one important consequence: it has undermined both Russian and realist interpretations of the Russo-Ukrainian war. On August 29, Russian President Vladimir Putin, French President Francois Hollande, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel agreed that a ceasefire […]

Russia Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Oct 28, 2015

Five Steps to Unleash Ukraine’s Economy

By Sergiy Tsivkach

Ukraine faces numerous challenges that would be hard for any government to address. However, it must implement economic reforms to stabilize the country and show immediate positive results. Ordinary Ukrainians want to see their bottom line improve, and businesses want fair rules. Developing an effective competition policy to eliminate the poisonous influence of monopolies and […]

Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Oct 26, 2015

A New Generation for a New Ukraine

By Carl Gershman

Editor’s Note: This piece is adapted from a speech Carl Gershman gave to the Ukrainian Catholic Education Foundation on October 24, 2015. Preparing for tonight’s talk has been an unexpected process of learning and discovery. I had thought I understood Ukraine, having given a number of talks and written articles urging the US government to […]

Russia Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Oct 26, 2015

Ukraine Goes to the Polls: Kolomoyskyi Is King Again

By Brian Mefford

As the ballots are counted in Ukraine’s October 25 local elections, early returns and exit polls indicate some surprises. The big story is that oligarch Ihor Kolomoyskyi came out on top. Kolomoyskyi, former governor of Dnipropetrovsk who was dismissed in March by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko for his overreach, backed candidates who look set to […]

Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Oct 26, 2015

As Ukraine Moves Toward Decentralization, Challenges Loom

By Alina Polyakova

Kyiv, Ukraine – On Sunday, October 25, Ukrainians went to the polls to elect mayors and representatives to municipal councils. Under normal circumstances, local elections would go more or less unnoticed by international observers, but with no elections taking place in occupied territories, including Crimea and the Luhansk and Donetsk Peoples’ Republics, these are far […]

Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Oct 23, 2015

Imperial Gamble Doesn’t Pay Off: New Book Gets Ukraine’s History Wrong

By Alexei Sobchenko

In his new book, Imperial Gamble: Putin, Ukraine and the New Cold War, the renowned American journalist Marvin Kalb touches on an issue outside his traditional area of expertise in domestic politics: the conflict between Russia and Ukraine and its implications for US-Russia relations.

Russia Ukraine