UkraineAlert

UkraineAlert

UkraineAlert is a comprehensive online publication that provides regular news and analysis on developments in Ukraine’s politics, economy, civil society, and culture. UkraineAlert sources analysis and commentary from a wide-array of thought-leaders, politicians, experts, and activists from Ukraine and the global community. UkraineAlert has become a major publication in Ukraine’s news landscape and has established itself not only through its quality of content but also significant partnerships with English, Ukrainian, and Russian-language media through the country.

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

DIRECT TRANSLATION: Dispatch from Donetsk – How a Cease-Fire Failed

UkraineAlert
Sep 3, 2026

Putin cannot defeat NATO but he could divide and discredit the alliance

By
Peter Dickinson

If Russian President Vladimir Putin decides to attack NATO, his goal will be to divide and discredit the alliance rather than actually defeating it, writes Peter Dickinson.

Conflict
Defense Policy

DIRECT TRANSLATION: Dispatch from Donetsk – How a Cease-Fire Failed

UkraineAlert
Aug 27, 2026

Ukrainians are not superheroes with endless powers of resilience

By
Lauren Van Metre, Elena Davlikanova

By celebrating Ukrainian resilience as an almost superhuman quality, the international community risks obscuring the much less glamorous reality that Ukrainians are actually ordinary people who have endured extraordinary violence for far too long, write Lauren Van Metre and Elena Davlikanova.

Civil Society
Conflict

DIRECT TRANSLATION: Dispatch from Donetsk – How a Cease-Fire Failed

UkraineAlert
Aug 25, 2026

A cultural renaissance is reshaping national identity in wartime Ukraine

By
Davis Richardson

Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine is fueling a defiant cultural outpouring that is redefining and strengthening Ukrainian national identity in ways that challenge centuries of Kremlin imperialism, writes Davis Richardson.

Civil Society
Conflict

Latest analysis

UkraineAlert

Aug 15, 2018

The Last Missing Piece to Make Ukraine Truly Independent

By
Kateryna Kruk

One of the biggest differences between Eastern and Western Europe is the role of the church. On paper, they are separate, but in Eastern Europe, tradition trumps the law and the influence of the church is immense. In Ukraine, the church is the most trusted institution, which is a good thing, but the fact that […]


Europe & Eurasia

Ukraine


UkraineAlert

Aug 15, 2018

Good News: IMF to Return to Kyiv in September

By
Timothy Ash

Last week Ukraine’s finances didn’t look so promising and a fall fiscal crisis was entirely possible. Many worried that Ukraine wouldn’t satisfy the International Monetary Fund’s three main demands in time to receive a $1.9 billion tranche before annual budget debates begin. The IMF had been demanding an Anticorruption Court, market prices on gas for […]


Europe & Eurasia

Ukraine


UkraineAlert

Aug 14, 2018

Ukraine Passes Anticorruption Court Law. What’s Next?

By
Maksym Kostetskyi

Ukraine finally got an Anticorruption Court on June 26. That day, President Petro Poroshenko signed the law which establishes the court. Importantly, the shortcomings of the original law the Rada had passed in June were later corrected. All appeals cases under the jurisdiction of the Anticorruption Court will be reviewed only in the Anticorruption Court, […]


Ukraine


UkraineAlert

Aug 14, 2018

Why Peace in Ukraine Cannot Wait

By
Andreas Umland

The war in eastern Ukraine grinds on, forgotten by many. There’s no obvious way out. The ceasefire agreements have been continuously broken, high-level dialogue between Russia and the United States stopped months ago, and the unarmed OSCE monitors in conflict zone are continuously harassed. Some analysts suspect that Moscow is waiting until March when Ukraine […]


Europe & Eurasia

Russia


UkraineAlert

Aug 13, 2018

How Rejection and Time Abroad Changed One Kyiv Activist’s Life

By
Mary Trichka

The Atlantic Council has been profiling some of Ukraine’s toughest but lesser-known female activists this summer. When I spoke with Iryna Shyba, a leader with the DEJURE Foundation in Kyiv, Ukraine, she almost rejected the premise of the piece. “I don’t feel like I am doing more than any other civil society activist,” Shyba said. […]


Ukraine


UkraineAlert

Aug 10, 2018

The Forgotten Story Behind Crimea’s Only Displaced University

By
Madeline Roache

“We could hear explosions during classes and the sound of helicopters flying overhead. But no one understood what was happening or how long it would last,” recalls Anna Gladchenko, a 23-year-old student at the Donetsk National Medical University in Ukraine. When war broke out in eastern Ukraine in 2014, 150,000 college students and 10,000 faculty […]


Russia

Ukraine


UkraineAlert

Aug 9, 2018

Q&A: Will Ukraine Face a Serious Financial Crisis If It Doesn’t Get IMF Money Before November?

By
Melinda Haring

Central bankers and economists are sounding the alarm in Kyiv, Ukraine. The Finance Ministry’s account balance has fallen to its lowest level in four years. The hryvnia is falling fast now, and fell nearly 4 percent over the last three weeks. Eurobond sales and foreign aid could remedy the cash-flow problem, but the International Monetary […]


Ukraine


UkraineAlert

Aug 8, 2018

In Ukraine, Attacks on Civil Society Spread to the Regions

By
Yevhen Bystrytsky

Just about everyone credits Ukraine’s persistent activists for almost every reform win since 2014. But four years after the Maidan, the public demand to put corrupt officials behind bars remains unanswered. Does that mean that civil society and the energy of the Maidan have reached their limits? It means just the opposite, actually. Resistance to […]


Ukraine


UkraineAlert

Aug 7, 2018

Why Ukraine Is Reappearing on US Investors’ Radar Screens

By
Andy Hunder

When I was an eight-year-old boy growing up in London in the late 1970s, my schoolteacher asked our class to show on the map where in Britain our parents were born. When it was my turn, I walked to the other side of the blackboard where the world map hung and proudly exclaimed that my […]


Ukraine


UkraineAlert

Aug 7, 2018

Which New US Sanctions on Russia Are Likely?

By
Anders Åslund

The US Congress has prepared numerous bills proposing new sanctions on Russia. Congress reacted sharply against President Donald Trump’s desire to ease existing sanctions. On July 28, 2017, the Senate voted 98-2 for the Combating America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA), which Trump quietly signed into law. CAATSA legislated already adopted sanctions on Russia, so […]


Russia

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spotlight

Resilience in the face of adversity

Ukraine’s transformation

Ukraine has moved tentatively toward an open society and market economy since independence. The country has held several democratic elections and made halting progress in addressing corruption and state control in its economy. Since the 2014 Maidan Revolution, Ukraine has undertaken significant governance and economic reform and moved decisively toward a Europe-Atlantic foreign policy. Since 2022, Ukraine has resiliently continued to advance some reforms despite fighting for its very existence against the full-scale Russian invasion.

Learn more about Ukraine

DIRECT TRANSLATION: Dispatch from Donetsk – How a Cease-Fire Failed

UkraineAlert
Dec 5, 2024

Ukraine’s entrepreneurial class can drive the country’s economic recovery

The Ukrainian SME sector has demonstrated remarkable wartime resilience and is poised to be at the forefront of efforts to create a modern, innovative, postwar economy, writes Anton Waschuk.

Read More

DIRECT TRANSLATION: Dispatch from Donetsk – How a Cease-Fire Failed

UkraineAlert
Oct 1, 2024

Ukraine needs international investors to maintain defense tech momentum

By
Mykhailo Fedorov

Ukraine’s rapidly expanding defense tech sector can play a game-changing role in the war against Russia but Ukrainian companies need international investment, writes Ukraine’s Minister for Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov.

Artificial Intelligence
Conflict

DIRECT TRANSLATION: Dispatch from Donetsk – How a Cease-Fire Failed

UkraineAlert
Jun 13, 2024

Ukraine officially embraces English as historic westward pivot continues

By
Oleksiy Goncharenko

By officially embracing English, Ukrainians aim to support their country’s historic pivot away from Moscow and return to the European community of nations, writes Oleksiy Goncharenko.

Civil Society
Conflict

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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Content

UkraineAlert

Jul 1, 2014

DIRECT TRANSLATION: Dispatch from Donetsk – How a Cease-Fire Failed

By Irena Chalupa

As Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko announced an end to the cease-fire by government forces fighting Russian-backed militants in the Donbas region of the southeast, new accounts emerged to show how futile was the ten-day truce. Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry reported that the country’s armed forces lost 27 soldiers killed and 69 wounded. And from Donetsk, the […]

Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Jun 26, 2014

Amid the ‘Dirty War’ in Ukraine, Hundreds Have Disappeared – and a Few Volunteers Search for Them

By Irena Chalupa

Kateryna Serhatskova, a 26-year-old Russian reporter for the Ukrainian news website Ukrainska Pravda, is becoming one of the main documenters of the “dirty war” for control of the Donbas region of southeastern Ukraine. Serhatskova, who lived for several years in Crimea, travels regularly to some of the most violent and fearful towns in the Donbas […]

Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Jun 23, 2014

US, EU Should Use Sanctions to Push Russia for a Single Base Price for Gas Sales to Europe

By Irena Chalupa

Former US Ambassador Bryza Urges Stepped-Up Effort to End Political Pricing by Kremlin and Gazprom  Russia has unsheathed its gas weapon again, demanding higher prices this spring from Ukraine and announcing last week a cutoff in sales to its neighbor unless paid for in advance. (As Moscow twists Ukraine’s arm over gas, it has retreated […]

Energy & Environment Energy Markets & Governance

UkraineAlert

Jun 23, 2014

The New Ordeal of Nadiya Savchenko

By Irena Chalupa

Ukraine Military’s Most Famous Female Pilot is Now a Captive of Separatist Rebels She looks tired, her face slightly puffy, but her blue eyes are calm and clear, and she appears utterly unafraid. Dressed in military fatigues, her hair cut short, she sits in the corner of a white-tiled room, handcuffed to a set of […]

Russia Ukraine

UkraineAlert

May 26, 2014

President-Elect Poroshenko’s Post-Election Remarks

President-elect Poroshenko makes his first remarks after Ukraine’s landmark elections. English subtitles available via close captioning, and translation available below.

Ukraine
REUTERS/Baz Ratner

UkraineAlert

May 12, 2014

DIRECT TRANSLATION: ‘How I Voted – Four Times – Against the Donetsk People’s Republic’

By Irena Chalupa

Russian-Sponsored Rebels Hold a ‘Referendum’ on Separation from Ukraine, But a Local Journalist Finds It a Farce Donetsk resident Ihnat Svyachyshyn sets off to vote in the May 11 Donetsk separatist referendum. He asks his neighbors, a couple in their mid-twenties to join him but they refuse. While they support a federalization of political power […]

Ukraine

UkraineAlert

May 5, 2014

DIRECT TRANSLATION: An End to Peace in Odessa

By Irena Chalupa

The Black Sea port of Odessa, Ukraine’s third-largest city and a coveted metropolis both for Ukrainians and Russians, became a battleground between pro-Russian militants and Ukrainians opposed to the country’s division. Accounts in Ukraine’s news media say the city’s police responded much as in the eastern Ukrainian cities hit by separatist violence so far, doing […]

Ukraine
REUTERS/Baz Ratner

UkraineAlert

May 2, 2014

Why Slaviansk? Ukraine is Attacking the Command Center of Russian-Backed Militias

By James Rupert

Ukraine has launched its most serious counter-attack yet on Russian-backed separatist militias at Slaviansk, a relatively minor city in eastern Ukraine. Slaviansk, by all evidence, serves as the main command center for the armed groups that have seized towns in Donetsk and Luhansk provinces. The Ukrainian operation appears “well mounted with concern for the lives […]

Russia Ukraine

UkraineAlert

May 1, 2014

Ukrainian Singer Ruslana Moves a Washington Crowd

By James Rupert

Her Chances of Moving Policy or Preventing a War Are Less Clear While song and emotion come effortlessly for Ukrainian musician and pro-democracy activist Ruslana Lyzhychko, she says she’s nervous about speaking publicly in English, a language with which she struggles. But Wednesday night she delivered a meticulously practiced appeal for Ukraine to 900 of […]

Russia Ukraine

UkraineAlert

May 1, 2014

DIRECT TRANSLATION: Ukrainians’ Fears of Russian Violence Straddles Their Border

By Irena Chalupa

Why are Russia’s nearly 2 million Ukrainians silent? That is the question of Ukrainian educator Iryna Kluchkovska  asks in the mainstream daily broadsheet Den (The Day). Russia’s annexation of Crimea and sponsorship of violent uprisings in Ukraine’s east have mobilized Ukrainian communities to protest in New York, Sydney, Munich and elsewhere, she writes. But the […]

Russia Ukraine