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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

Dec 2, 2015

Russia Is a “Troll State,” Not a Rogue State

By
Andrew Kornbluth

In the eighteen months since Russia annexed Crimea, the world has been alternately captivated and bewildered by the wild swings and sudden shifts that describe Russian foreign policy under President Vladimir Putin. Particularly alarming for those who fear a direct clash between Russia and the West has been Putin’s tendency to swerve between antagonism and […]


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UkraineAlert

Dec 1, 2015

Mykolayiv Makes a Surprising Turn Toward the West

By
Hannah Thoburn

Built on a series of spits and peninsulas, the Ukrainian city of Mykolayiv feels surrounded by water. It is here that in 1789, Russian Prince Gregory Potemkin built the shipyards that would repair Russian Empire ships fighting the Ottoman Empire, shipyards that remained of such importance that the city was closed to foreigners for most […]


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UkraineAlert

Nov 30, 2015

“The human rights situation in Crimea today is deplorable,” German MP Says

By
Christoph Bergner

Editor’s Note: This piece is adapted from a speech Dr. Christoph Bergner, a member of Germany’s Bundestag, gave at the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung Foundation on October 21, 2015. I would like to thank the organizers of this event for making human rights issues in Crimea the main topic. Even if other news is currently making headlines, we […]


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UkraineAlert

Nov 30, 2015

Ukraine Two Years After Euromaidan: What Has Been Accomplished?

By
Anders Åslund

Two years ago, popular protests erupted against Ukraine’s former President Viktor Yanukovych on Kyiv’s Maidan. Since then, Ukraine’s economy has deteriorated sharply, with a contraction of 18 percent in two years, but the Poroshenko Bloc was the biggest party by far in the October 25 local elections. One might say that the Ukrainian nation has […]


Ukraine


UkraineAlert

Nov 24, 2015

Russia Not a Reliable Partner in Fighting Terrorism

By
Stephen Blank

In the wake of recent terror attacks in Paris, President François Hollande has called for Russian and American cooperation against ISIS, joining many other policymakers who have voiced the need for cooperation between Russian and American intelligence agencies against Islamic terrorism. Indeed, Russian President Vladimir Putin urged his generals to treat French forces as “allies.” […]


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UkraineAlert

Nov 24, 2015

Making Sense of Mariupol’s Messy Elections

By
Vera Zimmerman

As cities finished counting the votes from Ukraine’s second round of mayoral elections, Mariupol and Krasnoarmiisk in the Donetsk region still haven’t held elections. Mariupol, which over the last nineteen months has been a strategic target of pro-Russian separatists, has become a political battleground. Local elections that were supposed to take place on October 25 […]


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UkraineAlert

Nov 23, 2015

Ukraine Is Not a Bargaining Chip for Putin’s Support Against ISIS

By
Ihor Kozak

A month and a half ago, while traveling along the frontlines of eastern Ukraine, I predicted that the Minsk II ceasefire agreements would not be respected by the Kremlin and its puppet Peoples’ Republics. It was clear to me—in spite of a tentative ceasefire put in place on October 2—that the situation in the Donbas […]


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UkraineAlert

Nov 18, 2015

Making Sense of Ukraine’s Local Elections: Voters Put Multiple Parties in Office

By
Brian Mefford

As the ballots are counted in Ukraine’s November 15 runoff elections, the preliminary results show no national mandate or overarching themes. Instead, in a positive step for the country’s democratic development, voters dispersed power widely and put multiple political parties into office. Here’s a quick rundown of the big races and the big surprises: Kyiv: […]


Ukraine


UkraineAlert

Nov 17, 2015

Putin Transformed from Stubborn Holdout to Star at G20

By
Anders Åslund

At the G-20 meeting in Antalya, Turkey, on November 16, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin proposed that Russia could restructure the $3 billion Eurobond that he lent former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych in December 2013. It comes due on December 20. This was a sudden change of policy. Until that moment, the Kremlin had insisted on […]


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UkraineAlert

Nov 16, 2015

The Economics of Rebellion in Eastern Ukraine

By
Yuri M. Zhukov

New research demonstrates why the conflict has not spread beyond Donetsk and Luhansk In April 2014, angry mobs and armed men stormed administrative buildings and police stations in eastern Ukraine, waving Russian flags and proclaiming the establishment of “Peoples’ Republics” in Donetsk and Luhansk. At the time, some observers predicted that the “pro-Russian” uprising would […]


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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.

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.

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UkraineAlert

Feb 3, 2015

US Should Provide Arms, Military Aid to Ukraine, Eight Ex-Officials Say

By New Atlanticist

‘We Face a Critical Juncture’ in Halting Russian Aggression in Eastern Europe, Group Says Eight former senior US officials—diplomats, ranking Pentagon and State Department office-holders, military commanders and US appointees to NATO—today urged the Obama administration and its NATO allies to strengthen support for Ukraine by urgently providing military aid, including defensive weapons, for its […]

Ukraine
An article on the CitySakh.ru website, from Russia's Pacific Far East region, shows a Russian marine, identified by the patch on his sleeve, filmed in the battle for Donetsk airport. (CitySakh.ru/ www.citysakh.ru)

UkraineAlert

Jan 30, 2015

DIRECT TRANSLATION: Russian Marine, Home From Ukraine War, Says ‘A Lot of Russian Military’ Are Fighting There

By Irena Chalupa

Troops from Russia’s Pacific Far East Region Are Prominent in a War 4,200 Miles to the West The Russian island of Sakhalin, in the Pacific Ocean just north of Japan, is fully a continent away from the war raging in southeastern Ukraine. But Konstantin Gorelov, a 22-year-old, active-duty Russian naval infantry commando, made the 4,200-mile […]

Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Jan 27, 2015

DIRECT TRANSLATION: Nadiya Savchenko’s Lawyer Warns Putin She May Die in Moscow Prison

By Irena Chalupa

Ukrainian Officer-Pilot Reaches 45 Days on Hunger Strike Against Her Abduction and Politicized Trial Nadiya Savchenko, the Ukrainian army officer and pilot who was captured in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and spirited to prison in Moscow, may die in captivity there on the hunger strike she has pursued for 45 days, her lawyer wrote yesterday. […]

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UkraineAlert

Jan 27, 2015

When Putin’s Brittle Regime Implodes, Our Protection Will Be a Stable Ukraine

By Alexander J. Motyl

Backing Kyiv’s Independence Will Contain Russian Expansionism—And Damage From the Next Russian Revolution Although “regime change” has become a dirty phrase, the best thing that could happen to Russia, its neighbors, and the world would be a change from Vladimir Putin’s brand of strongman authoritarianism to some form of democracy.

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UkraineAlert

Jan 23, 2015

Two Months After Elections, Moldovan Political Gridlock Deepens the Country’s Risks

By New Atlanticist

Pro-Europe Parties Won a Narrow Victory at the Polls, But Can’t Agree on a Government Eight weeks after voters in Moldova gave a narrow victory to the three main parties inclined toward greater democracy and ties with Europe, those groups are locked in a political battle that has prevented the formation of a government. The […]

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UkraineAlert

Jan 23, 2015

Russian Troops Lead Moscow’s Biggest Direct Offensive in Ukraine Since August

By James Rupert

As Kremlin Escalates, the War Costs Ukraine $6 Million-Plus Daily, Atlantic Council’s Herbst Says A “substantial number” of Russian Federation special forces troops led this week’s capture of the Donetsk airport amid what appears to be Russia’s biggest direct military offensive in Ukraine since last summer. The offensive, by thousands of Russian troops, appears aimed […]

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UkraineAlert

Jan 20, 2015

Russian Militia in Ukraine Says It’s Building an Air Force: Is that Quixotic or Dangerous?

By New Atlanticist

The Kremlin-loyalist Russian TV station LifeNews told the story January 17 that the Lugansk People’s Republic, the mini-state propped up by Russia in Ukraine’s Lugansk province, is establishing an air force. The station played just a minute of video showing men in winter military uniforms rolling a 1960s-era two-seat jet trainer—marked with the red star […]

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UkraineAlert

Jan 20, 2015

Russia Sends New Army Troops Into Ukraine War, Kyiv Says

By James Rupert

Intensified Combat and a Wave of Bombings May Be Kremlin Pushing Ukraine to Accept New Talks Russia reportedly has sent two battalions of troops into Ukraine’s Donbas region to strengthen its forces there amid a week-long spike in combat. At a minimum, Russia’s injection of new regular troops, tanks and rockets is a warning to […]

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UkraineAlert

Jan 16, 2015

Four Months after Ukraine-Russia Truce, Putin Can’t Risk Implementing It

By James Rupert

The War at Donetsk’s Airport is On—And Peace Talks Planned for This Week Are Off The intensified battle between Ukraine and Russia for the airport in Donetsk seems likely to be a fight over this month’s military message in the Donbas war. Russia’s army veterans, fighting as mercenaries, form the bulk of the anti-Ukraine force […]

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UkraineAlert

Jan 16, 2015

Ukraine’s Dignified Warrior: Nadiya Savchenko Confronts the Kremlin

By Irena Chalupa

Paratrooper, Pilot, Parliamentarian, She Pressures Moscow with Hunger Strike in Prison In seven months since a Russian-backed militia in southeastern Ukraine captured Nadiya Savchenko, the Ukrainian paratrooper and pilot has become one of her country’s biggest icons in its war against the Russian invasion. Her captors spirited her illegally into Russia, held her in isolation, […]

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