Stay Updated

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

Jan 26, 2021

Russia’s Navalny protests provoke mixed emotions in Ukraine

By
Peter Dickinson

Ukraine has good reasons to support the current Russian protests against Kremlin corruption, but many Ukrainians remain suspicious of protest leader Alexei Navalny's troubling nationalist background.


Conflict


Corruption


UkraineAlert

Jan 22, 2021

Ukraine’s historic gas sector reforms are under threat

By
Aura Sabadus

The transformation of Ukraine's gas sector is widely seen as one of the few reform success stories since the country's 2014 Revolution of Dignity, but recent political decisions are placing this progress in doubt.


Geopolitics & Energy Security


Oil and Gas


UkraineAlert

Jan 20, 2021

US targets Putin’s pipelines from Baltic Sea to Balkans

By
Diane Francis

Washington’s attention has recently focused on Nord Stream 2, but US officials also face similar challenges in Southern Europe, where Russia is once again using energy to advance its geopolitical interests.


Eastern Europe


Geopolitics & Energy Security


UkraineAlert

Jan 20, 2021

Why Ukraine’s business community has high hopes for the Biden presidency

By
Andy Hunder

Many Ukrainians are optimistic that incoming US President Joe Biden can play an historic role in helping Ukraine complete the country's post-Soviet transition and free itself once and for all from oligarch control.


Democratic Transitions


Politics & Diplomacy


UkraineAlert

Jan 19, 2021

Ukraine’s cultural revival is a matter of national security

By
Marina Pesenti

Culture and identity have been at the heart of the hybrid war waged by Russia against Ukraine for the past seven years.


Disinformation


Nationalism


UkraineAlert

Jan 19, 2021

Russia’s Crimean crimes demand tougher sanctions

By
Maria Tomak

Ukrainian civic society activists are calling on the international community to introduce personal sanctions against officials guilty of human rights abuses in Russian-occupied Crimea.


Civil Society


Human Rights


UkraineAlert

Jan 19, 2021

Ukraine’s roadmap to an artificial intelligence future

By
Vitaliy Goncharuk

Ukraine has recently adopted a National AI Development Strategy for the coming decade that aims to integrate artificial intelligence technologies into every sphere of the Ukrainian economy.


Defense Technologies


Education


UkraineAlert

Jan 14, 2021

Putin’s war drives Ukraine towards true independence

By
Peter Dickinson

Thirty years since the collapse of the USSR, Ukraine is no longer part of Vladimir Putin's informal empire but the country continues to struggle with the legacy of centuries spent under Russian domination.


Conflict


Democratic Transitions


UkraineAlert

Jan 14, 2021

Ukraine raised the alarm over weaponized social media long before Trump’s twitter ban

By
Victor Tregubov

Tech giant Twitter's decision to block the account of US President Donald Trump has sparked a global free speech debate, but Ukraine has been warning for years about the dangers of weaponized social media.


Media


Non-Traditional Threats


UkraineAlert

Jan 12, 2021

Climate change may prevent Ukraine from becoming an agricultural superpower

By
Anna Ackermann

Kyiv's record-breaking weather in 2020 was further evidence of a changing climate that threatens to undermine Ukraine's emergence as an agricultural superpower and key player in global food security.


Climate Change & Climate Action


Ukraine

spotlight

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.

The Eurasia Center’s mission is to enhance transatlantic cooperation in promoting stability, democratic values, and prosperity in Eurasia, from Eastern Europe and Turkey in the West to the Caucasus, Russia, and Central Asia in the East.

Follow us on social media
and support our work

Content

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