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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

Mar 11, 2021

Biden must persuade Germany and Austria to stop the “Schroederization” of Europe

By
Anders Åslund and Benjamin L. Schmitt

US President Joe Biden needs to address the issue of Western politicians accepting Kremlin-linked jobs following their retirement from public service, argue Anders Åslund and Benjamin L. Schmitt.


Corruption


Geopolitics & Energy Security


UkraineAlert

Mar 9, 2021

US sanctions Ukrainian oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky

By
Peter Dickinson

The United States imposed sanctions against Ukrainian oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky on March 5 in a move that underlined American support for Ukraine’s Euro-Atlantic integration.


Corruption


Democratic Transitions


UkraineAlert

Mar 9, 2021

America’s Russia policy must not ignore human rights

By
Dylan Myles-Primakoff

Dylan Myles-Primakoff outlines why any effective future US policy towards Russia must include a human rights dimension.


Human Rights


Politics & Diplomacy

UkraineAlert

Mar 9, 2021

New report on Russia policy misses the mark

Atlantic Council experts voice their disagreement with a recent report on the role of human rights in US policy toward Russia.


Human Rights


Politics & Diplomacy


UkraineAlert

Mar 7, 2021

Ukraine-EU border crossings in urgent need of upgrade

By
Lesia Dubenko and Pavlo Kravchuk

Ukraine's EU border crossings play an important infrastructure role in the country's Euro-Atlantic integration but little has been done to upgrade border facilities since the country turned west in 2014.


Economy & Business


Eurozone


UkraineAlert

Mar 4, 2021

Zelenskyy aims to end Ukraine’s oligarch era

By
Iuliia Mendel

As events in recent weeks have shown, President Zelenskyy is prepared to challenge the power of Ukraine’s oligarchs everywhere from the energy and banking sectors to politics and the media.


Corruption


Democratic Transitions


UkraineAlert

Mar 4, 2021

Ukraine can feed the world

By
Roman Leshchenko

The launch of an agricultural land market will leave Ukraine well placed to assume an ever-greater role in global food security, says Ukraine's Minister of Agrarian Policy Roman Leshchenko.


Economy & Business


Ukraine


UkraineAlert

Mar 3, 2021

Difficult neighbors: How the Belarus crisis has strained ties between Minsk and Kyiv

By
Vladislav Davidzon

The democratic awakening that has taken place in Belarus since August 2020 has fractured and realigned the economic, military, diplomatic, and security relationship between Minsk and Kyiv.


Belarus


Democratic Transitions


UkraineAlert

Mar 2, 2021

Ukrainian parliament finally moves to end multi-voting

By
Peter Dickinson

Ukraine scored a small but significant victory in the battle against political corruption on March 2 with the launch of a new voting system in the country’s parliament that should put an end to the practice of MPs voting on behalf of absent colleagues.


Corruption


Democratic Transitions


UkraineAlert

Mar 1, 2021

Getting Ukraine’s security service reform right

By
Oleksandra Ustinova and Steven Pifer

Ukrainian MPs are currently preparing a long-awaited bill to reform the country's security service. The initiative is encouraging but numerous measures are still required to distance Ukraine from the KGB past.


Democratic Transitions


Intelligence

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.

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UkraineAlert

Feb 18, 2015

Amid the ‘Cease-Fire,’ Russian Forces Win a Battle in Ukraine

By New Atlanticist

Kyiv Forced into New Retreat; US, Europe Must Increase Support, Atlantic Council Analysts Say At midday February 18, three-and-a-half days beyond the designated hour for a cease-fire in eastern Ukraine, fighting was continuing in the strategic city of Debaltseve, where Russian forces continue to pound a nearly surrounded Ukrainian contingent that may still number in […]

Eastern Europe Russia

UkraineAlert

Feb 13, 2015

Ukraine’s Other War: Parliament Advances Anti-Corruption Fight

By New Atlanticist

Lawmakers Vote to End Their Immunity from Prosecution Members of Ukraine’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, overwhelmingly passed a bill to end their own legal immunity from prosecution, one of the main laws that for years helped Ukraine to the top of Europe’s corruption charts. Article 80 of Ukraine’s constitution protects all Rada members from prosecution […]

Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Feb 13, 2015

Making Ukraine’s ‘Glimmer of Hope’ Sustainable

By Sabine Freizer

If Russia Permits, the Minsk Accord Could Be a Start for Stabilizing Donbas The ceasefire agreement signed by Russia and Ukraine on in Minsk on 12 February offers what German Chancellor Angela Merkel calls “a glimmer of hope, no more no less” for constricting, and eventually ending, the war in southeast Ukraine’s Donbas region. Whether […]

Russia Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Feb 13, 2015

Russia’s Ukraine War Wins it the Advantage in New Truce Deal

By John E. Herbst

‘Minsk II’ Accord Will Let Moscow Keep Pumping Arms, Fighters into Ukraine’s Donbas With thousands of Ukrainian troops nearly surrounded in Donbas by the freshly armed, Kremlin-directed rebel militias, Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko accepted the Minsk II agreement February 12. The new accord is clearly less advantageous to Kyiv than was the Minsk I agreement, which […]

Russia Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Feb 10, 2015

Obama-Merkel Accord Delays Talk of Arms for Ukraine’s Defense Against Russia

By John E. Herbst

Europe Signals New Negotiation With Kremlin Will Not Include New Pressures on Kyiv The Obama-Merkel summit was critical for maintaining Transatlantic unity in the face of Moscow’s escalating aggression in Ukraine. While skeptical of the Kremlin’s intentions, German Chancellor Angela Merkel would like to try another round of diplomacy to stop the fighting. That is why […]

Europe & Eurasia Germany

UkraineAlert

Feb 10, 2015

Ukraine’s Economic Crisis is Deep; It Needs Loans Faster Than You May Think

By Yuriy Gorodnichenko

Kyiv Lacks Money for the Aggressive Reforms That Ukrainians and the West Seek The uncertainty around how much—and how soon—Ukraine might get help from international lenders is contributing to two real economic dangers facing the country: a default on its debts and a radical slashing of the budget. Ukraine’s friends—the United States and European governments—need […]

Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Feb 6, 2015

Amid Escalated War, U.S. Weighs Defensive Weapons for Ukraine

By New Atlanticist

France & Germany Seek to Halt the Fighting, May Use Specter of a Better-Armed Ukraine to Press Putin The Obama administration has announced no decision on whether to help Ukraine use US-made weapons to defend against Russian-sponsored attacks. But France and Germany are probing to see whether that threat might help push Russian President Vladimir […]

Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Feb 3, 2015

Will Moldova’s Dangerous Political Deadlock Force Out Its Prime Minister?

By New Atlanticist

Foreign Minister and Europeanist Nataliya Gherman May Become Next Leader Moldova’s political parties are deadlocked on forming a government, and the parliament has until next week (February 12) to either confirm Prime Minister Iurie Leanca in his post or find an alternative. But Leanca is sure of having only 42 of the 51 votes he […]

Moldova

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