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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

Aug 28, 2025

Putin wants to capture Ukraine’s crucial fortress belt without a fight

By Mykola Bielieskov

As US-led efforts to end the Russian invasion of Ukraine struggle to gain momentum, Vladimir Putin’s latest territorial demands include the surrender of strategically vital and heavily fortified Ukrainian land in the east of the country, writes Mykola Bielieskov.

Conflict Disinformation

UkraineAlert

Aug 28, 2025

Russia attacks Zelenskyy’s legitimacy to derail US-led Ukraine peace talks

By Serhii Savelii

Moscow’s efforts to portray Zelenskyy as illegitimate fall apart when weighed against Ukraine’s Constitution and the country’s political practice, along with international precedents and legal tradition, writes Serhii Savelii.

Conflict Democratic Transitions

UkraineAlert

Aug 25, 2025

Putin’s hybrid war against Europe continues to escalate

By Maksym Beznosiuk

While international attention focuses on faltering US-led efforts to broker a peace deal and end the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Kremlin’s broader hybrid war against Europe continues to escalate, writes Maksym Beznosiuk.

Conflict Disinformation

UkraineAlert

Aug 21, 2025

Putin is facing a fuel crisis as Ukraine escalates attacks on Russian refineries

By David Kirichenko

Historically, Russia’s sheer size has always been considered one of its main strengths. By launching waves of airstrikes across the country, Ukraine now intends to exploit this vastness and transform it into Russia’s greatest weakness, writes David Kirichenko.

Conflict Defense Technologies

UkraineAlert

Aug 21, 2025

Sorry, Trump, but Putin will not pursue peace until he is facing military defeat

By Elena Davlikanova, Yevhen Malik

Following the recent Alaska and White House summits, it should now be abundantly clear that Russia will continue to reject Trump’s peace overtures until Putin faces significantly more pressure to end the war, write Elena Davlikanova and Yevhen Malik.

Conflict European Union

UkraineAlert

Aug 19, 2025

A strong Ukraine is the only realistic security guarantee against Russia

By Peter Dickinson

Ukraine’s Western partners are preparing to offer security guarantees as part of efforts to prevent further Russian aggression, but it far from clear whether Western governments would actually fight Russia on behalf of Ukraine, writes Peter Dickinson.

Conflict Defense Policy

UkraineAlert

Aug 16, 2025

Ukrainians left dismayed as Trump gives Putin the red carpet treatment

By Peter Dickinson

US President Donald Trump’s warm welcome for Russian President Vladimir Putin was a major PR victory for the Kremlin dictator that made for particularly painful viewing in Ukraine, writes Peter Dickinson.

Conflict Freedom and Prosperity

UkraineAlert

Aug 14, 2025

Alaska Summit: Trump wants a real estate deal. Putin wants an empire.

By Peter Dickinson

US President Donald Trump appears to view peace negotiations with Vladimir Putin as a geopolitical real estate deal. But the Russian dictator is not fighting for land in Ukraine. He is fighting for Ukraine itself, writes Peter Dickinson.

Conflict Democratic Transitions

UkraineAlert

Aug 14, 2025

Trump should insist on the return of Ukrainian children abducted by Russia

By Mercedes Sapuppo

When US President Donald Trump sits down with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday, he must demand the return of the thousands of Ukrainian children abducted by Russia, writes Mercedes Sapuppo.

Conflict Human Rights

UkraineAlert

Aug 12, 2025

Sacrificing Ukraine will only increase the cost of stopping Putin’s Russia

By Pavlo Zhovnirenko

Pressuring Ukraine to accept a Kremlin-friendly settlement may succeed in pausing the current war, but it will not bring peace. On the contrary, it will set the stage for international instability on a far larger scale, writes Pavlo Zhovnirenko.

China Conflict

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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

Feb 26, 2022

Ukrainians are wondering: Where is the West?

By Natalie Jaresko

A former finance minister of Ukraine gives an impassioned plea for more assistance to her country as it is under assault from Russia.

Conflict Europe & Eurasia

UkraineAlert

Feb 24, 2022

What Ukraine needs now

By Aleksander Kwaśniewski, Kersti Kaljulaid, Carl Bildt, Stéphane Fouks, Wolfgang Ischinger, Victor Pinchuk, Anders Fogh Rasmussen

Russia has invaded Ukraine. Far from shrinking away, the EU should work to further integrate Ukraine and offer it a membership perspective.

Conflict Eurozone

UkraineAlert

Feb 24, 2022

Ukraine desperately needs help

By Andrey Stavnitser

As Russia declares war, Ukraine calls on the global community not to sit on the sidelines and to urgently stand with Ukrainians.

Conflict Economic Sanctions

UkraineAlert

Feb 23, 2022

Time to go after the Kremlin’s wallets

By Doug Klain

Going after the Kremlin’s oligarchs who stash their illicit wealth in the West is an essential move that should happen now before Putin goes further in his campaign to end Ukrainian independence and revise Europe as we know it today.

Conflict Economic Sanctions

UkraineAlert

Feb 21, 2022

Putin escalates his Ukraine war with recognition of separatist republics

By Peter Dickinson

Eight years since the invasion of Crimea, Putin struck another blow in his war against Ukrainian statehood on February 21 by recognizing the two separatist republics of east Ukraine as independent states.

Conflict Disinformation

UkraineAlert

Feb 20, 2022

Putin’s self-defeating war has succeeded in uniting Ukrainians

By Lucy Minicozzi-Wheeland

Vladimir Putin’s eight-year war against Ukraine has had a profound impact on Ukrainian identity and done more for national unity than any other single factor since Ukraine regained independence three decades ago.

Civil Society Conflict

UkraineAlert

Feb 19, 2022

NATO must seize the current strategic opportunity in the Black Sea

By Harlan Ullman

The Ukraine crisis has underlined the need for NATO to develop a coherent Black Sea Strategy that will allow the alliance to counter the growing regional threat posed by Vladimir Putin's resurgent Russia.

Conflict Maritime Security

UkraineAlert

Feb 19, 2022

Will there be a “Munich Moment” in the Russia-Ukraine crisis?

By Thomas S. Warrick

A full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine could yet be prevented via a "Munich moment" bringing together Vladimir Putin and Joe Biden to strike a last-minute geopolitical deal, writes Thomas Warrick.

Conflict Economic Sanctions

UkraineAlert

Feb 18, 2022

Putin’s absurd genocide claims cannot hide his war crimes in Ukraine

By Olexander Scherba

Russian President Vladimir Putin likes to claim that an anti-Russian genocide is underway in Ukraine but in reality he is upset by the historical loss of influence suffered by representatives of the Russian state.

Conflict Disinformation

UkraineAlert

Feb 17, 2022

What would constitute victory for Putin in his war with Ukraine?

By David Batashvili

In order to achieve his long-term foreign policy goal of subjugating a hostile Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin must militarily seize and occupy a large portion of what is the largest country wholly in Europe.

Conflict National Security