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 7, 2021

How to improve EU-Ukraine energy cooperation in 2021

By
Olga Bielkova

Ukraine's GTSOU gas transportation system operator is hoping to expand cooperation with European partners in 2021 as part of efforts to diversify beyond the prior focus on Russian gas transit to EU markets.


Eastern Europe


Energy Transitions


UkraineAlert

Jan 7, 2021

What is Ukraine’s economic outlook for 2021?

By
Anders Åslund

Without judicial reform or an increase in investment, there is little reason to expect any economic growth in Ukraine during 2021 beyond the gains arising from the post-coronavirus rebound.


Coronavirus


Economy & Business


UkraineAlert

Jan 7, 2021

Ukraine counting on Biden’s support in struggle against Russian authoritarianism

By
Kira Rudik

Many Ukrainians have high hopes for US President-elect Joe Biden. They see cause for encouragement in Biden’s nuanced understanding of Ukrainian affairs honed through years of engagement.


Conflict


Democratic Transitions


UkraineAlert

Jan 5, 2021

All roads lead to Ukraine in Putin’s global hybrid war

By
Peter Dickinson

For the past seven years, Russia has been waging a campaign of hybrid hostilities against the West. This confrontation began in Ukraine, and events in Ukraine remain central to what has become a new Cold War.


Conflict


Democratic Transitions


UkraineAlert

Jan 2, 2021

US imposes new sanctions to kill off Putin’s pet pipeline

By
Diane Francis

New US sanctions look set to thwart Russian efforts to complete a strategically important natural gas pipeline that would greatly strengthen the Kremlin's control over European energy supplies.


European Union


Geopolitics & Energy Security


UkraineAlert

Dec 22, 2020

Death of Kharkiv mayor Kernes marks end of era

By
Brian Mefford

The recent death of long-serving Kharkiv mayor Hennadiy Kernes marks the end of an era for the eastern Ukrainian city and ushers in a period of political jockeying in the months ahead.


Coronavirus


Politics & Diplomacy


UkraineAlert

Dec 21, 2020

Ukraine’s education reforms are at risk of politicization

By
Andrew D’Anieri

The controversial recent confirmation of Serhiy Shkarlet as Ukrainian Minister of Education has dragged the country's ambitious education sector reform agenda firmly into the political fray.


Education


Ukraine


UkraineAlert

Dec 21, 2020

Ukraine on trial

By
Adrian Karatnycky

Fears are mounting that the prosecution of Maidan protest movement leader Tetyana Chornovol on murder charges is an attempt to put Ukraine's entire future as a European democracy on trial.


Democratic Transitions


Resilience & Society


UkraineAlert

Dec 17, 2020

Why East European gas markets should integrate

By
Aura Sabadus

To meet the four key gas sector challenges facing them, regional countries including Ukraine, Moldova, Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, and Turkey will need to work in unison to satisfy mutual interests.


Eastern Europe


Energy Markets & Governance


UkraineAlert

Dec 17, 2020

International Criminal Court is no panacea for Ukraine

By
Wayne Jordash and Anna Mykytenko

The International Criminal Court announced plans in December 2020 for a probe into possible war crimes committed in Ukraine since 2014, but past experience indicates the road to justice will be long.


Conflict


International Organizations

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

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.

Ukraine

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:

Russia Ukraine

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 […]

Russia Ukraine

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 […]

Russia Ukraine

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 […]

Russia Ukraine

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 […]

Russia Ukraine

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 […]

Russia Ukraine

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. […]

Russia Ukraine

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 […]

Russia Ukraine