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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

Jun 13, 2018

No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: The Saga of Hanna Solomatina

By
Josh Cohen

Hanna Solomatina never set out to be a whistleblower. The former head of Ukraine’s National Agency for Corruption Prevention’s (NACP) Financial Control and Lifestyle Monitoring Department just wanted to use her background in finance and auditing to help the country fight endemic graft. The NACP manages Ukraine’s e-declaration system, which mandates that officials reveal their […]


Ukraine


UkraineAlert

Jun 12, 2018

The Epic Struggle of Crimean Tatars Captured in the Film Mustafa

By
Viola Gienger

Crimean Tatars’ unending struggle for freedom has been nothing less than epic, and much of it is represented in the long life of Mustafa Dzhemilev. Finally, a film producer has recognized his story for what it is: a compelling tale of historic sweep featuring a legendary protagonist of distinguished bearing.


Ukraine


UkraineAlert

Jun 12, 2018

Ukraine’s Next Reform Challenge May Be the Toughest One Yet

By
Olena Halushka and Anastasia Krasnosilska

Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) recently made headlines after masterminding a dramatic plot to spare the life of Russian journalist Arkady Babchenko. On May 29, newspapers announced that Babchenko had been assassinated in Kyiv, Ukraine, where he had been living as a dissident Russian journalist. The next day at what many thought was an ordinary SBU […]


Russia


Ukraine


UkraineAlert

Jun 12, 2018

Ukraine Takes One Step Forward and Two Steps Back

By
Melinda Haring

It’s only been six weeks since I was last in Kyiv, and yet the mood now feels completely different. When I was last in Kyiv, posters advertising rock star Slava Vakarchuk’s Independence Day concert were everywhere and he was the talk of the town. No longer. Now former prime minister and campaigner extraordinaire Yulia Tymoshenko’s […]


Ukraine


UkraineAlert

Jun 11, 2018

How to Keep the Kremlin and the Oligarchs Out of the Ukrainian White House

By
Anders Åslund

The other night in Kyiv, one of Ukraine’s best political analysts came to see me. He asked me what the United States wants in the next Ukrainian presidential election slated for March 2019. I told him that the United States doesn’t have a favorite. Nor will it. My interlocutor was highly dissatisfied with the answer. […]


Russia


Ukraine


UkraineAlert

Jun 7, 2018

Ukraine’s Veterans Are a Powerful Constituency. Who Will Control Them?

By
Lauren Van Metre

On February 27, Ukraine’s parliament voted to establish a new Ministry for Veterans, pending the approval of the Cabinet of Ministers. The parliament has been active on veterans’ issues, adopting more than thirty laws in the last three years to provide social services and protections. But more than twenty ministries and government departments handle veterans’ […]


NATO


Security & Defense


UkraineAlert

Jun 6, 2018

Ukraine’s Devastating Problem Is Only Getting Worse

By
Diane Francis

Political disaffection is not unique to Ukraine, but the lack of optimism and new access to European jobs foretells more migration.


Macroeconomics


Migration


UkraineAlert

Jun 4, 2018

Actually, the West’s Anticorruption Policy Is Spot On

By
Daria Kaleniuk

In a recent Foreign Affairs column, Adrian Karatnycky and Alexander J. Motyl argue that the West’s anticorruption policies are failing in Ukraine. This is false. The West’s anticorruption policies are spot on, and the West needs to dig in and push even harder. Karatnycky and Motyl are right that Ukraine has changed for the better […]


Ukraine


UkraineAlert

May 31, 2018

Putin’s Bridge to Nowhere

By
Askold Krushelnycky

Russia’s war in Ukraine has entered its fifth year. Skirmishes and killings continue every week but have faded from the headlines—perhaps because they have reached “an acceptable level of violence.” I was a teenager when I first heard that chilling term uttered by a British politician in 1971 referring to the low intensity war in […]


Russia


Ukraine


UkraineAlert

May 31, 2018

How Ukraine Can Seize the Moral High Ground in the Donbas

By
Lauren Van Metre

Fighting in eastern Ukraine last week was the worst it’s been this year. The uptick in violence coincides with Ukraine’s transition of the command of the war from its security forces to its armed forces, which is part of the implementation of Ukraine’s new law on reintegration. While much of the new law has not […]


Russia


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

Jun 16, 2015

Here’s One Practical Way to Save Ukraine

By Andreas Umland

Stimulating Ukraine’s economy is a key goal of the reforms that are underway in Kyiv. Ukraine’s Association Agreement with the European Union (EU) should enable better economic management and freer trade. But there’s an important precondition for growth: investor confidence. Domestic businessmen and foreign investors must feel sufficiently motivated to spend their money, time, and […]

Russia Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Jun 15, 2015

The Muddled Thinking at the G-7 Only Encourages Putin

By Stephen Blank

Leaders at the recent G-7 summit reaffirmed their commitment to keeping sanctions on Russia in place. They also agreed that sanctions will likely be extended until 2016 because Russia has failed to implement the Minsk II ceasefire agreement. But the summit ended on a disappointing note: The summit communiqué and all the G-7 leaders indicated […]

Russia Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Jun 15, 2015

Corruption, not Russian Tanks, Greatest Threat to Success of Ukraine

By Melinda Haring

Corruption threatens to derail Ukraine’s progress, American and Ukrainians officials agreed at the Atlantic Council’s Wrocław Global Forum in Wrocław, Poland on June 13. “There is no issue that is a greater threat to Ukraine’s long-term success today than institutionalized corruption,” said Geoffrey R. Pyatt, US Ambassador to Ukraine. “It’s a bigger threat than Russian […]

Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Jun 11, 2015

Russia’s Buildup Along Ukraine’s Border Doesn’t Mean What You Think It Does

By Ruben Gzirian

Much has been made about the tactics and military doctrine driving Russian operations in eastern Ukraine. Some analysts see Russia following a hybrid war strategy, while others contend that the Kremlin is simply trying to “catch up conceptually to the realities of modern war.” One thing is clear: Russia is manipulating eastern Ukraine through misdirection, […]

Russia Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Jun 11, 2015

Here’s How to Ensure Radical Transparency in Ukraine: Install Cameras Everywhere

By Melinda Haring

On Saturday, June 6, approximately 200 people gathered in the great hall of the Vyshhorod state administration building to welcome home 120 soldiers returning from the war in eastern Ukraine. Vyshhorod District Head Alexander Gorgan presented certificates to those soldiers who had completed one year of military service, which entitles them to land, medical care, […]

Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Jun 9, 2015

Everything You Thought You Knew about Right-Wing Parties is Wrong

By Alina Polyakova

The Russian government and its proxies in eastern Ukraine have consistently branded Kyiv’s government a fascist junta and accused it of having Nazi sympathizers. Moscow’s propaganda is outrageous and wrong. In fact, Ukraine’s radical right political parties—Right Sector and Svoboda—have been marginalized.

Eastern Europe Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Jun 8, 2015

With Kippot and Klezmer Music, Messianic Jews Aim to Build Bridges in Ukraine

By Matthew Kupfer

Russian politicians and pro-Russia separatists in the Donbas have repeatedly accused Ukraine of promoting fascism and Nazism since the February 2014 overthrow of former President Viktor Yanukovych. But at a Shabbat concert in Kyiv on June 5, another side of Ukraine was on full display: religious diversity and pluralism.

Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Jun 4, 2015

Father of Recovering Kremlin Critic Vladimir Kara-Murza Says His Son Was Poisoned

By Melinda Haring

Vladimir Kara-Murza has regained consciousness in a Moscow hospital after falling gravely ill on May 26, and the Russian opposition leader’s father now says his son was poisoned.

Russia Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Jun 3, 2015

Why Saakashvili’s Appointment as Odesa’s Governor Actually Makes Perfect Sense

By Brian Mefford

On May 30, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko named former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili Governor of the Odesa region. There are a number of ways to interpret the bold move, but two historical analogies may be more apt: Saakashvili is either following in Duke of Richelieu’s footsteps as an outside Governor of Odesa or the late […]

The Caucasus Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Jun 3, 2015

Mutual Deterrence? Think Again. Russia Seeks to Intimidate the West

By Stephen Blank

Moscow recently announced that it will procure fifty new nuclear-capable bombers, the Tupolev TU-160 or Blackjacks, which are the world’s largest combat aircraft. This seemingly anodyne announcement points to a critically important element of Russian strategy that we overlook at our and our allies’ peril. The procurement is the latest in a continuing series of […]

Russia Ukraine