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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

Mar 17, 2022

The EU needs Ukraine

By
Paul Grod

The European Union needs to embrace Ukraine's membership aspirations in order to demonstrate its own commitment to European values and its opposition to Vladimir Putin's authoritarian alternative.


Civil Society


Conflict


UkraineAlert

Mar 16, 2022

Vladimir Putin has almost no chance of successfully occupying Ukraine

By
Ben Connable

Vladimir Putin is throwing Russia's full military might into the invasion of Ukraine but any attempt to occupy large parts of the country is almost certainly doomed to fail.


Conflict


Russia


UkraineAlert

Mar 15, 2022

Vladimir Putin has nothing but bad options in Ukraine

By
Doug Klain

After three weeks of military setbacks Putin now faces the choice of escalating his Ukraine war further and risking his own downfall or seeking a face-saving exit from a conflict that has united the world against Russia.


Conflict


Financial Sanctions and Economic Coercion


UkraineAlert

Mar 15, 2022

Ukraine’s exodus escalates as millions more prepare to flee Putin’s invasion

By
Andrew D’Anieri

As Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine continues to escalate, millions more Ukrainians are expected to flee the country in the coming days to escape Russian war crimes and the horrors of occupation.


Conflict


Human Rights


UkraineAlert

Mar 15, 2022

Russia’s veto makes a mockery of the United Nations Security Council

By
Shelby Magid, Yulia Shalomov

Putin’s Ukraine War has fundamentally transformed the geopolitical landscape. This new reality must be reflected in the way the United Nations Security Council functions. If not now, when?


Conflict


International Organizations


UkraineAlert

Mar 11, 2022

Lend-Lease 2022: How the US can back Ukraine against Putin

By
Thomas S. Warrick

With Ukraine still in desperate need of more military aid to counter Vladimir Putin's invasion, it is now time for the United States to revive the Lend-Lease program signed into law eighty-one years ago on March 11, 1941.


Conflict


Russia


UkraineAlert

Mar 10, 2022

Not just Putin: Most Russians support the war in Ukraine

By
Peter Dickinson

Many international commentators have pinned the blame for the Russian invasion of Ukraine solely on Vladimir Putin but the chilling truth is that an overwhelming majority of ordinary Russians also support the war.


Conflict


Disinformation


UkraineAlert

Mar 9, 2022

Putin’s Ukraine War leaves Russia trapped behind a new iron curtain

By
Dave Elseroad

Vladimir Putin's Ukraine War is part of a broader Kremlin offensive against human rights and civil liberties that is also being waged inside Russia itself against the country's marginalized and muzzled civil society.


Civil Society


Conflict


UkraineAlert

Mar 8, 2022

Ukraine urgently needs a multi-billion dollar international fund to survive

By
Ilya Timtchenko

Ukraine urgently needs international financial support to prevent an economic collapse as a result of Vladimir Putin's invasion and in order to fund the future rebuilding of the country's devastated towns and cities.


Conflict


Economy & Business


UkraineAlert

Mar 7, 2022

Western weakness is enabling Russian war crimes in Ukraine

By
Bohdan Klid

The democratic world has loudly condemned Vladimir Putin's Ukrainian invasion but longstanding policies of Western weakness towards the Kremlin linger on and are now enabling Russian war crimes in Ukraine.


Conflict


European Union

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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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Content

UkraineAlert

Apr 27, 2015

Ukraine’s PR Problem Isn’t Just a PR Problem

By Andrew Kornbluth

Ukraine has a problem with global public relations. Despite its fundamentally compelling narrative—a recent democracy defending itself against a much larger, authoritarian neighbor—the country’s efforts remain uncoordinated, unprofessional, and unfiltered. Even as the state relies on a worldwide diaspora in its struggle for survival, it shows few signs of effectively harnessing its expatriates and the […]

Russia Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Apr 27, 2015

Let’s Go “All In” on Ukraine

By Jeffrey Gedmin

In October 1949, as the defeated forces of Chiang Kai-shek fled to Taiwan and Mao Zedong declared the founding of the People’s Republic of China, Republicans in Congress blamed Harry S. Truman for losing China. Some demanded a pivot from Europe to Asia in US foreign policy. Truman might have been persuaded a few years […]

Russia Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Apr 23, 2015

Is Putin’s Russia Fascist?

By Alexander J. Motyl

A growing number of Russian analysts, in Russia and abroad, have taken to calling Vladimir Putin’s regime “fascist.” And they don’t use the term casually or as a form of opprobrium. They mean that Putin’s Russia genuinely resembles Mussolini’s Italy or Hitler’s Germany.

Russia Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Apr 23, 2015

Russia’s Lone Warrior Stands Up to Putin

By Irena Chalupa

Ilya Ponomarev has not slept in the same bed for more than a few nights since August 2014. The two-term legislator from Russia’s third-largest city Novosibirsk has been living in exile since Russia’s lower house of parliament, the Duma, stripped him of parliamentary immunity.

Russia Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Apr 22, 2015

Letter: Experts Worry that “Decommunization” Laws Curtail Free Speech

By Atlantic Council

Editor’s note: It’s unfortunate that in a time of critical issues that legislation that disenfranchises certain, if often extreme, points of view looks like it’s going to become law. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko is expected to sign four laws on “decommunization,” recently passed by Ukraine’s parliament, which enact an official version of the nation’s 20th century […]

Russia Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Apr 21, 2015

No Easy Outs for Putin: US Presidential Candidates United on Ukraine

By Ariel Cohen

Ukraine will remain at the heart of the conflict between the US and Russia beyond the 2016 presidential election. In the polls, Americans are united on Ukraine; the majority of respondents support increased sanctions on the Kremlin. All of the major presidential candidates, save Senator Rand Paul, take a tough approach with Moscow and support […]

Russia Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Apr 20, 2015

The Achilles’ Heel of Ukraine’s Mighty Oligarchs

By Brian Mefford

The Ukrainian government’s well-executed showdown in March 2015 to rein in the country’s wealthiest oligarch is the first of many battles with the oligarchs that lie ahead. In the battle with the oligarchs, President Petro Poroshenko—the owner of Roshen Confectionery Corporation and an oligarch himself—is uniquely positioned to fight. The President and his reform-minded parliament will […]

Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Apr 16, 2015

Ukrainian Fighter Pilot’s Case More About Politics, Less About Law, Says Attorney

By Melinda Haring

When Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine captured a fighter pilot loyal to Kyiv in June 2014, they got more than they bargained for. Nearly a year later, Nadiya Savchenko is on trial in Russia, and at the center of an international imbroglio. “This isn’t an ordinary case,” Russian attorney Mark Feygin said at the Atlantic […]

Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Apr 16, 2015

Out of the Abyss: Anders Åslund Sees Hope for Ukrainian Economy

By Thomas O. Melia

Ukraine: What Went Wrong and How to Fix It, the new book by Anders Åslund of the Peterson Institute for International Economics, presents so compelling an argument that—even before publication on April 17—it has already persuaded the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Western nations to adopt a $40 billion economic stabilization program for Ukraine. This […]

Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Apr 14, 2015

The Balkan Piece of the Putin Puzzle

By Stephen Blank

While the Russian threat to Poland and the Baltic States has sparked justified anxiety, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s imperial adventure is just as much of a threat to the Balkans.  Moscow is putting on a full-court press—using energy exports, information warfare, trade, arms sales, and efforts to obtain military bases in Cyprus, Montenegro and Serbia—to […]

Energy & Environment Energy Markets & Governance