UkraineAlert

One Year After MH17 Shootdown, Brazen Act Over Ukraine Still Poisons Atmosphere

By Larry Luxner

Simon Ostrovsky will never forget the moment he learned that Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 had fallen from the sky, with 298 passengers and crew aboard. “I was on a train from Kyiv to Kharkiv reading my Twitter feed, and something came down about a plane crash. Somebody said it was a Malaysian plane,” the Soviet-born […]

Europe, Brace Yourself. Russia Sees Iran Deal as Means to Kill Missile Defense

By Stephen Blank

On July 14, hours after the United States, Russia and four other world powers concluded a nuclear accord with Iran, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov declared that the deal negated any reason for a US missile defense network in Europe. We should now prepare ourselves for the inevitable political and propaganda onslaught Russia will mount […]

Russian Disinformation Alienates the West from Russian Periphery

By James J. Coyle

The Russian Army has released a photo of a Ukrainian tank decorated with a swastika, yet the original Reuters photograph shows no such emblem. Russia also released a photo of a Ukrainian soldier covered in Nazi tattoos, but that picture was actually taken in 2005, inside a Russian prison. Europe is revolted by any reminders […]

No One Feels Safe in the New Crimea

By Taras Berezovets

Sixteen months after Russia’s March 2014 annexation of Crimea, the peninsula’s human rights situation is getting progressively worse. The first wave of repression targeted mainly pro-Ukrainian activists and Crimean Tatars, while in 2015 the Kremlin’s victims have been Slavs: Ukrainians and Russians. Since early this year, Russian authorities have forcibly resettled thousands of self-sufficient businessmen […]

Ukraine Bank Deputy Dmytro Solohub: Economic recovery ‘difficult, but still possible’

Dmytro Solohub admits that the Ukrainian economy is “very fragile” and faces “lots of security risks”— but says he’s doing everything he can to stabilize Ukraine’s currency, control galloping inflation, and return his country to prosperity as quickly as possible. Solohub, 37, took over in mid-March as Deputy Governor of the National Bank of Ukraine […]

Earth to Russia. Come Back to Reality.

By Ariel Cohen

The conflict in Ukraine highlights dangerous trends in Russian foreign policy. Russian-backed separatists and the Russian military have killed thousands of civilians and Ukrainian soldiers in eastern Ukraine. It’s the starkest example of Moscow’s neo-imperialist foreign policy so far. However, even more worrisome trends have emerged. Last week, Yevgeny Fedorov, a ruling party Duma majority […]

What Ukraine Can Learn From Poland

By Oksana Khomei

When the Soviet Union crumbled in 1991, both Poland and Ukraine were poor. Since then, the Polish economy has boomed, while Ukrainians are poorer than they were twenty-four years ago. Poland got its reforms right in the 1990s, and now plays a significant role in Ukraine’s reform process. This is evident in the close relations […]

Here’s How to Make Sense of the Violence in Western Ukraine: Follow the Money

By John E. Herbst

Ukraine made headlines again when a nationalist group and police in the western city of Mukachevo exchanged gunfire that killed three on June 11. A group of 21 armed members of Right Sector seized a sports complex owned by Member of Parliament Mikhail Lanyo and reportedly beat and shot one of his employees in the […]

Greek Crisis ‘Diverts Attention’ from Kyiv

By Ashish Kumar Sen

Ukraine’s Economy Minister: Unlike Greece, Ukraine is embracing reforms The Greek financial crisis has diverted global attention away from Ukraine, but it also “sheds a positive light” on the Kyiv government’s achievements, Ukrainian Economy Minister Aivaras Abromavicius said in a July 14 interview. “Greece is rejecting reforms, and we are embracing reforms,” said Abromavicius, who […]

Ukraine Must Put Reform Agenda in Overdrive While There’s Still Time

By Anders Åslund

Kyiv is vibrant with intellectual and political discussions. As after any revolution the debate is about what is wrong and what should be done. Policy people acknowledge that reforms are proceeding but too slowly, while a typical business verdict is that corruption is as bad as before, but it has become more disorganized, since the […]