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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.


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UkraineAlert

Apr 9, 2018

Why Expelling Russian Diplomats Isn’t Enough

By
Jakub Janda

So far, twenty-eight nations have sent home more than 140 Russian diplomats and spies in a coordinated response to the Russian nerve agent assassination attempt in Salisbury, England. Symbolically, this unprecedented expulsion of Russian officials constitutes an important show of unity, but its practical impact in terms of hindering Russian subversion operations is limited. With […]


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UkraineAlert

Apr 5, 2018

Nationalism Is on the Rise in Ukraine, and That’s a Good Thing

By
Ruslan Minich

The Euromaidan revolution and ongoing Russian aggression have united the nation like never before. People of various origins, both Russian and Ukrainian speakers, stood up to the pro-Russian regime of Viktor Yanukovych, and now they resist Russia’s efforts to reimpose influence over Ukraine. As a result, nationalism is a part of everyday life for the […]


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UkraineAlert

Apr 5, 2018

Foam Butts, Black Labs, and Straight Jackets: Kyiv Activists Lampoon New Restrictions

By
Josh Cohen

It’s clear that Ukraine’s officials and oligarchs are not fans of the Anti-Corruption Action Center (AntAC). Founded by Daria Kaleniuk and Vitaliy Shabunin—two of Ukraine’s leading anti-corruption activists—AntAC has been civil society’s tip of the spear in its ongoing efforts to end the impunity politicians took for granted before the Euromaidan. AntAC and its team […]


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UkraineAlert

Apr 3, 2018

Two Ways the West Enables Corruption in Ukraine

By
Taras Kuzio

Western pressure on Ukraine to fight corruption has never been greater. But the pressure has been one-sided and focused on Ukraine, which isn’t fair. The West bears some culpability, too. Ukrainians flee criminal prosecution and receive political asylum in the West, and they use Western banks to launder capital from Ukraine. It is time to […]


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UkraineAlert

Apr 3, 2018

Reluctant Russophobes: The Underwhelming International Response to Putin’s Hybrid War

By
Peter Dickinson

If Moscow is genuinely innocent of all the misdeeds attributed to it, why does it always seem to get the blame? The Kremlin attributes every new allegation to Russophobia. This excuse has proven ideally suited to the varied terrain of hybrid warfare, serving as a one-size-fits-all explanation for virtually any charge. Whether the claims relate […]


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UkraineAlert

Apr 2, 2018

Is Putin Getting Ready to Exit the Donbas?

By
Michael Bociurkiw

For the second time in less than a month, a ceasefire in eastern Ukraine was agreed to. The pause in shooting was to have gone into effect just after midnight Thursday, March 29. That’s not particularly unusual; many ceasefires have been declared since the conflict began in the spring of 2014. And like the others, […]


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UkraineAlert

Apr 2, 2018

Why Ukraine’s Major Achievement in Government Transparency May Fail

By
Olena Prokopenko

The launch of Ukraine’s e-declaration system—one of the world’s most advanced—remains among the country’s biggest post-Maidan achievements. It has been a groundbreaking step toward the transparency broadly supported by the country’s Western partners. Yet ever since its inception, electronic asset declarations for officials has been under continuous sabotage and has been attacked on a wide […]


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UkraineAlert

Mar 29, 2018

What’s Up with Nadiya Savchenko?

By
Vera Zimmerman

Ukrainians are still trying to digest the shocking news of an averted military-style coup plot led by war hero and parliamentarian Nadiya Savchenko. The story broke on March 8 when Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) apprehended Volodymyr Ruban as he was illegally crossing a checkpoint in a van loaded with heavy weapons. Ruban, a volunteer prisoner […]


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UkraineAlert

Mar 28, 2018

Ukraine’s Glaring National Security Gap that No One Has Heard Of

By
Anders Åslund

My article about Ukraine’s new electricity tariffs aroused quite a few interesting comments, which deserve responses. Since these comments are private and many from people in high positions, I shall not mention their names. The arguments circle around pricing, ownership, privatization, investment, and taxation. The natural start is ownership. No one favors state enterprises. They […]


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UkraineAlert

Mar 27, 2018

Good to Be King: Ukraine’s Fugitive Oligarch Blocks Reforms and Benefits from International Handouts While Under House Arrest

By
Oleksandr Kharchenko

Corruption is still a major challenge in Ukraine, and the energy sector is particularly vulnerable to illegal activity. But although it is tempting to view corruption as a problem indigenous to Ukraine, outside actors—sometimes tolerated or even supported by the government in Kyiv—play a leading role in perpetuating corruption inside Ukraine. A key illustration of […]


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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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Content

UkraineAlert

Sep 19, 2014

Atlantic Council’s UkraineAlert: Version 2.0

By James Rupert

With today’s edition, the Atlantic Council’s UkraineAlert newsletter is six months old. Readers will notice that it arrives in a new package: concise and colorful. Its content will remain much the same, although we’re always working to improve it.

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UkraineAlert

Sep 18, 2014

Poroshenko’s Stark Message to Washington

By John E. Herbst

Russia’s Assault Threatens Not Just Ukraine, but Europe and Eurasia Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko delivered a stark but necessary message in Washington September 18.  Addressing a Joint Session of Congress, he noted that:

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UkraineAlert

Sep 15, 2014

Can Ukraine’s Parliament Election Bring Moderate Voices From Embattled East?

Could Ukraine’s parliamentary elections in six weeks produce representatives from eastern Ukraine who might provide a clear alternative voice for that region, distinct from those of the thuggish, Kremlin-sponsored “people’s republics?” If so, that could offer President Petro Poroshenko a set of credible, more moderate interlocutors to bring into negotiations to come over the east’s […]

Elections Politics & Diplomacy

UkraineAlert

Sep 15, 2014

Ukraine’s President Seeks Urgent US Help to Defend against Russian Aggression

By John E. Herbst

Petro Poroshenko Will Ask Congress’ Support in Getting US Weapons President Petro Poroshenko arrives in Washington this week at the most perilous moment in the history of independent Ukraine. After the Kremlin’s months of attacking Ukraine with its proxy militias, it directly invaded southeast Ukraine last month with thousands of regular Russian army troops, thus […]

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UkraineAlert

Sep 11, 2014

Mariupol: Russia’s Next Target in Ukraine War?

A Strategic City Prepares Its Defense; But if Truce Fails, Its Fate Will be Uncertain Amid the war between Russia and Ukraine, no city is watching the viability of the fragile cease-fire with more apprehension than Ukraine’s second-largest seaport, Mariupol. That is because the city, home to steel mills and, normally, a half-million residents, will […]

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UkraineAlert

Sep 10, 2014

The Turning Point

By Timothy Ash

Inaction by US and NATO to Russia’s August Incursion Showed Putin He Could Invade Ukraine History books to be written about the Ukraine crisis and the Battle for Donbas will likely record as a military turning point the battle on September 5 for the town of Ilovaisk. A massive, pinpoint-accurate artillery barrage, using high-tech reconnaissance […]

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UkraineAlert

Sep 8, 2014

Russian Court Orders Ukrainian Pilot-Soldier to Undergo Psychiatric Evaluation

Nadiya Savchenko Will Refuse to Submit to ‘Illegal’ Exam, Her Lawyer Says A Russian court has sent Ukrainian soldier and pilot Nadiya Savchenko for a “forensic psychiatric evaluation” at the Moscow institute where Soviet authorities for years performed abusive treatments on political dissidents. Savchenko says she will refuse to submit to the examination, which she […]

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UkraineAlert

Sep 8, 2014

Ukraine, Facing Russia on Its Own, Takes the Risk of Truce and Compromise With Moscow

By James Rupert

A Cease-Fire, if It Holds, Could Let the Kremlin Strengthen Its Grip on the Donbas Region When Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko attended the NATO Summit on Friday, it was clear that the Alliance had chosen not to offer his country the weapons it needs to fight the Russian troops and paramilitaries who have invaded his […]

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UkraineAlert

Sep 4, 2014

DIRECT TRANSLATION: ‘This Is Vladimir Putin’s War’

By Irena Chalupa

Russia’s Former Deputy Prime Minister Explains to Ukrainians Why His Government Has Invaded Their Country Again With Russia again having escalated its war on Ukraine last month (sending in paratroopers from its 76th and 98th Airborne Divisions, plus armor and artillery), few are asking what is really driving the Kremlin’s military campaign in Ukraine’s southeast. […]

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UkraineAlert

Aug 28, 2014

DIRECT TRANSLATION: Russian Tycoon “Will No Longer Be Silent” on Ukraine War

By Irena Chalupa

Mikhail Khodorkovsky Calls for General Strike in Russia to Protest Invasion The Russian tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, former chairman of Yukos, once Russia’s biggest oil company, is speaking out against the toll that the Kremlin’s undeclared war on Ukraine is taking on Russians. Khodorkovsky, a Putin foe who spent nearly ten years in prison on politically […]

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