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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

Sep 19, 2016

Ten Things the New US Ambassador to Ukraine Should Do

By
Melinda Haring and Kateryna Smagliy

On August 18, Marie L. Yovanovitch became the US Ambassador to Ukraine. Yovanovitch is not new to the country; she served as the deputy chief of mission in Kyiv—the second in command—under Ambassadors Carlos Pascual and John Herbst months before the Orange Revolution erupted. She spent the bulk of her career working in the Eurasia […]


Ukraine


UkraineAlert

Sep 14, 2016

Why the West Ignores Russia’s Wars

By
Andrew Kornbluth

This month will mark one year since the beginning of Russia’s intervention in Syria and two and a half years since its invasion of Ukraine’s Donbas region. In Syria, Russia has indiscriminately bombed inhabited areas using virtually every type of conventional munition in its arsenal—thermobaric, cluster, and incendiary—killing around 3,000 civilians so far. These deaths […]


Russia


Ukraine


UkraineAlert

Sep 13, 2016

An Important Reform Milestone: An Independent Energy Regulator in Ukraine

By
Olena Halushka

It is hard to find anything that unites the Ukrainian parliament as efficiently as the body’s regular and purposeful failure to adopt the bill on the National Commission for State Regulation of Energy and Public Utilities. Neither the demands of the expert community, nor the bill’s connection with Ukraine’s international commitments, nor even the threat […]


Russia


Ukraine


UkraineAlert

Sep 13, 2016

Here’s What Ukrainian-Americans Are Doing For Ukraine

By
Alina Polyakova

Ukraine’s Maidan revolution united Ukraine as a nation like never before, and it reinvigorated Ukrainian-American communities across the United States. While Ukrainian-Americans are well organized nationally through such organizations as the Ukrainian Congress Committee of Ukraine and in metropolitan areas with large Ukrainian communities, such as Chicago and New York, Ukrainian-Americans in smaller towns have […]


Ukraine


UkraineAlert

Sep 13, 2016

Ukraine’s Signature Transparency Initiative Comes Under Fire Again

By
Josh Cohen

In October 2014, Ukraine’s parliament passed a law requiring all public officials to file an electronic declaration disclosing their assets. The law requires the identification of assets directly held by officials, as well as those held by family members, which means officials can no longer hide illegally obtained assets in the names of family members. […]


Ukraine


UkraineAlert

Sep 9, 2016

What Poroshenko Said and Didn’t Say

By
Kateryna Kruk

Unsurprisingly Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko kicked off his annual televised address to parliament on September 6 with words of unity. “At a time when Russia’s aggression against Ukraine is still ongoing, when the military threat from the east is the most difficult strategic challenge, the issue of national unity and political consolidation is a matter […]


Ukraine


UkraineAlert

Sep 7, 2016

The Russian Balance Sheet at Hangzhou

By
Stephen Blank

The recent G-20 meetings in Hangzhou, China provide a useful balance sheet for assessing Russia’s status in Europe. While Russian President Vladimir Putin showed that Russia is not as isolated as many in the West think it should be, Putin failed to convince France and Germany to pressure Ukraine to implement the Minsk II ceasefire […]


Russia


Ukraine


UkraineAlert

Sep 6, 2016

The German-Russian Relationship: It’s Complicated

By
Andreas Umland

There’s a growing perception in Germany that the Minsk ceasefire agreements may never be implemented and the conflict in Ukraine will continue to grind on. To examine the origins and nature of the conflict as well as its possible solution and the role Bavaria may play in these affairs, the German-Ukrainian NGO Kyiv Dialogue held […]


Germany


Russia


UkraineAlert

Sep 6, 2016

How Xi and Putin Humiliated Obama at the G-20

By
Anders Åslund

On September 4-5, the G-20 held its annual summit in Hangzhou, China, President Xi Jinping’s home. G-20 summits tend to be meaningless, but this one appears to have been outright harmful. The signature event was when President Barack Obama’s Air Force One was not met with a staircase, and it went downhill from there. During […]


China


Russia


UkraineAlert

Sep 6, 2016

The Top Ten Things Ukraine’s Parliament Needs to Do This Fall

By
Olena Halushka

Over the last two and a half years, Ukraine has channeled the energy of the Euromaidan protests into building a new state, and has achieved a number of major accomplishments. However, much more remains be done. The delay in implementing crucial reforms is equivalent to stopping halfway, while the slow rate of change is already […]


Ukraine

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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

May 6, 2015

The Dog That Finally Barked? Separatism and Hybrid Warfare in Ukraine

By Emmet C. Tuohy

Kremlin Targets Sleepy Corner of Europe with Hybrid Tactics No part of Europe is too obscure for the Kremlin’s machinations. On April 6 in Odessa, a group claiming to represent ethnic minorities in southwestern Ukraine founded the National Council of Bessarabia (NRB). Released on a Russian-registered website, the NRB’s manifesto decrying “discrimination” and calling for […]

Russia Ukraine

UkraineAlert

May 5, 2015

Standing Up to a ‘Revanchist Russia’

By Ashish Kumar Sen

NATO’s top military commander says Russia set on ‘strategic competition’ with West A “revanchist Russia” would use violence to alter international norms, boundaries, and institutions and poses a threat to the United States’ transatlantic allies and partners, NATO’s top military commander US Air Force Gen. Philip M. Breedlove said April 30.

Russia Ukraine

UkraineAlert

May 4, 2015

No War, No Peace—But Always a Place at the Table for Russia

By James J. Coyle

Russia’s track record in the long-simmering conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan is consistent with Russian efforts in Moldova, Georgia, and Ukraine, and Russian President Vladimir Putin’s calls for a Novorossiya: No war, no peace—but always a place at the table for Russia.

Europe & Eurasia Russia

UkraineAlert

May 4, 2015

Ukraine Debt Deal Could Spark Chain Reaction

By Yuri Poluneev

Ukraine’s economy is in crisis. Experts warn that the country’s gross domestic product could shrink by 6 to 12 percent and inflation could exceed 40 percent in 2015, although one prominent economist put that figure in triple digits already. The war in eastern Ukraine has throttled the country’s industrial capacity. To prevent the country from […]

Russia Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Apr 30, 2015

Ukraine’s Volunteer Battalions Must Join the Military or Sheath the Sword

By Ruben Gzirian

The Ukrainian army faces growing criticism from within its ranks after humiliating defeats at Debaltseve and Ilovaisk in eastern Ukraine. When fighting broke out between Ukrainian forces and Russian-backed separatists, the Ukrainian military was weak and the state had to rely on volunteers. Of the fifty thousand Ukrainian troops in the field, 22 percent are […]

Russia Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Apr 30, 2015

The West’s Strategy Toward Putin Promises Conflict and Increases Danger of Wider War

By Melinda Haring

Ian Brzezinski: Our policy “conveys hesitancy and a lack of unity and determination. It has failed to convince Putin to reverse course. Indeed, it may have actually emboldened him.”    The West’s current strategy toward Russian President Vladimir Putin’s aggression in Ukraine not only promises continued conflict in Ukraine but also poses an increased danger […]

Russia Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Apr 28, 2015

Klitschko: Economic Success Will Unite Country

By Melinda Haring

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko is no pushover. The former professional boxer turned politician has never been knocked down in a professional boxing match. Known for his powerful punches, Klitschko’s 87 percent knockout rate is the second-best knockout-to-fight ratio of any champion in heavyweight boxing history.

Russia Ukraine

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