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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

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


UkraineAlert

Jan 11, 2021

US sanctions Giuliani-linked Ukrainians over Russian bid to influence 2020 election

By
Anders Åslund

The US Department of the Treasury has imposed sanctions on seven Ukrainians who stand accused of meddling in the recent American presidential election campaign on behalf of Russia.


Elections


Russia


UkraineAlert

Jan 9, 2021

Russia remains unwilling to end seven-year Ukraine war

By
Oleksii Reznikov

Ukraine has repeatedly demonstrated its readiness to make compromises in order to secure peace with Russia but Moscow has so far refused to reciprocate, argues Ukraine's Deputy PM Oleksii Reznikov.


Conflict


Peacekeeping and Peacebuilding

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