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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 23, 2025

NATO chief: Cost of Russian victory in Ukraine would be ‘trillions not billions’

By Peter Dickinson

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte has warned NATO leaders that a Russian victory in Ukraine would cost alliance members “trillions not billions,” writes Peter Dickinson.

Conflict
Defense Industry

UkraineAlert

Jan 23, 2025

North Korea is using Russia’s Ukraine invasion to upgrade its army

By Alina Hrytsenko

North Korea’s participation in Russia’s Ukraine invasion is a dangerous escalation in what is already the largest European war since World War II with potentially alarming implications for global security, writes Alina Hrytsenko.

Conflict
Defense Technologies

UkraineAlert

Jan 23, 2025

European Parliament and United States condemn ‘sham’ Belarus vote

By Mercedes Sapuppo

The European Parliament has condemned this weekend’s presidential election in Belarus as a “sham” designed to keep the country’s long-serving dictator Alyaksandr Lukashenka in power, writes Mercedes Sapuppo.

Belarus
Conflict

UkraineAlert

Jan 21, 2025

Ukrainian parliament prepares to vote on Bulgarian nuclear reactor purchase

By Stephen Blank

Ukraine is poised to purchase a pair of Soviet-era nuclear reactors from Bulgaria in a deal that highlights the country’s struggle for greater energy security amid Russia’s ongoing bombardment of civilian infrastructure, writes Stephen Blank.

Conflict
European Union

UkraineAlert

Jan 21, 2025

Donald Trump’s promise of strong US leadership should begin with Ukraine

By Arseniy Yatsenyuk

By resolutely backing Ukraine, President Trump can prevent the slide toward World War III and reestablish US leadership in a world threatened by Putin’s Axis of Autocrats, writes former Ukrainian PM Arseniy Yatsenyuk.

Conflict
European Union

UkraineAlert

Jan 16, 2025

Ukraine’s escalating air attacks bring Putin’s invasion home to Russia

By Maria Avdeeva

Ukraine has begun 2025 with a series of increasingly ambitious long-range air attacks against strategic military and industrial targets that are succeeding in bringing Putin’s invasion home to Russia, writes Maria Avdeeva.

Conflict
Defense Industry

UkraineAlert

Jan 15, 2025

Europe has a window of opportunity to shape Ukraine peace efforts

By Doug Klain

With the incoming Trump administration still formulating its approach to ending the Russian invasion of Ukraine, European leaders now have an historic window of opportunity to shape the future of European security, writes Doug Klain.

Conflict
European Union

UkraineAlert

Jan 15, 2025

Appeasement will only fuel Vladimir Putin’s imperial ambitions in Ukraine

By Anastasiia Marushevska

Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine is an old-fashioned colonial war rooted in centuries of Russian imperial history that cannot be ended by limited territorial concessions or other attempts at appeasement, writes Anastasiia Marushevska.

Conflict
Disinformation

UkraineAlert

Jan 14, 2025

No peace without security: Ukraine needs guarantees against new Russian invasion

By Peter Dickinson

Ukraine is ready to make territorial concessions but insists that any peace deal must include credible long-term security guarantees to prevent a new Russian invasion, writes Peter Dickinson.

Conflict
European Union

UkraineAlert

Jan 9, 2025

Abandoning Ukraine would plunge the entire world into an era of instability

By Victor Liakh

If Western leaders choose to sacrifice Ukraine in a misguided bid to placate Putin, the shift from a rules-based international order to the law of the geopolitical jungle will be complete, writes Victor Liakh.

Conflict
Freedom and Prosperity

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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.

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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UkraineAlert

Jan 17, 2022

Countering the growing Russian naval threat in the Black Sea region

By Skyler Blake

With Russian President Vladimir Putin currently threatening to escalate his eight-year war against Ukraine, it is now vital to implement an effective NATO security strategy for the Black Sea region.

Conflict
Maritime Security

UkraineAlert

Jan 16, 2022

Kyiv Diary: Ukrainians await Putin’s invasion and Poroshenko’s arrest

By Vladislav Davidzon

The threat of a full-scale Russian invasion and the prospect of a major political scandal sparked by the arrest of former president Petro Poroshenko have failed to induce panic among the hardy crisis veterans of Kyiv.

Civil Society
Conflict

UkraineAlert

Jan 16, 2022

Calls grow within Germany for tougher stance towards Putin’s Russia

By Alexander Motyl

German foreign policy experts have published an appeal demanding Germany’s Russia policy be fundamentally changed from tacit encouragement to open resistance of Vladimir Putin’s expansionist designs.

Conflict
Corruption

UkraineAlert

Jan 15, 2022

Moscow’s Memory Wars: Putin seeks to whitewash Russia’s Stalinist past

By Gina Lentine

Russia's recent move to shut down the Memorial International human rights organization is part of an ongoing Kremlin campaign to rehabilitate the Soviet era and whitewash the crimes of Russia's Stalinist past.

Civil Society
Disinformation

UkraineAlert

Jan 14, 2022

Western weakness has emboldened Putin and invited Russian aggression

By Tinatin Khidasheli

The West's weak response to repeated instances of Russian aggression in the ex-USSR has emboldened Vladimir Putin and created today's European security crisis, says former Georgian defense minister Tinatin Khidasheli.

Conflict
European Union

UkraineAlert

Jan 13, 2022

Russia Crisis: War fears mount as West rejects Putin’s ultimatum

By Peter Dickinson

A week of high-stakes meetings between Kremlin officials and their US, NATO and OSCE counterparts has failed to defuse tensions in Eastern Europe or reduce the threat of a full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Conflict
NATO

UkraineAlert

Jan 12, 2022

Cutting off Russia from SWIFT will really sting

By Harley Balzer

While Russia has attempted to reduce its dependence on the SWIFT payment system, it remains vulnerable to a sanctions cut-off in the event of a new Kremlin offensive in Putin's eight-year undeclared war against Ukraine.

China
Conflict

UkraineAlert

Jan 11, 2022

Ukrainians call on US Senate to sanction Putin’s pipeline weapon

By Ukrainian civil society representatives

US senators are set to vote in the coming days on a bill for new sanctions against Russia’s Nord Stream 2 pipeline. Ukrainian civil society representatives have issued an appeal calling on senators to back sanctions.

Conflict
European Union

UkraineAlert

Jan 10, 2022

The US and NATO must attack Vladimir Putin’s intimidation strategy

By Harlan Ullman

The current US approach to the crisis with Russia is predictable and conventional. The principle author of the "shock and awe" doctrine, Harlan Ullman, believes it is time to turn Putin's intimidation tactics against him.

Conflict
Defense Policy

UkraineAlert

Jan 9, 2022

How to make a Russian invasion of Ukraine prohibitively expensive

By Andriy Zagorodnyuk

Bolstering Ukraine's ability to wage an effective asymmetric campaign on home soil may be the most effective way to deter Russian President Vladimir Putin from launching a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Conflict
Defense Technologies