Commentary & Analysis

Russian Troops in Ukraine: It’s Really an Invasion After All

By James Rupert

As Media Harden Their Accounts of Russia’s Assault, Will the West Harden Its Response? Russia’s attacks into Ukraine this week (exactly six months after its troops began their invasion of Crimea) are bringing the actual word ”invasion” into media headlines. Atlantic Council analysts and others say the key question now is how hard a response […]

Coordinating on Ukraine: Strategy Session with USG Interagency

By The Atlantic Council

The Atlantic Council on August 26 gathered experts, policymakers, and US government officials as part of its ongoing “Coordinating on Ukraine: Strategy Session with USG Interagency.” The off-the-record event, chaired by Council Executive Vice President Damon Wilson, covered topics such as how to deal with Russian aggression in the Ukraine context and more broadly; what […]

Ukraine’s Independence Day: Opposed Observances

By Irena Chalupa

Rebels Parade Prisoners to Declare That Ukraine Is Nazi-Inspired Ukraine’s government marked the country’s twenty-third anniversary of independence from the Soviet Union yesterday with a military parade and a vow by President Petro Poroshenko to sustain Ukraine’s war against Russian-sponsored separatists in the southeast. In Donetsk, the separatists paraded bruised and dirty Ukrainian soldiers, their […]

A Smart US Investment for Georgia’s Future

By Nino Ghvinadze and Laura Linderman

Despite Georgia’s readiness to become a candidate for NATO, the Alliance announced in late June that Georgia will not be offered a Membership Action Plan (MAP) at the Wales Summit this September. This is disappointing news for Georgia, which has undertaken years of political and military reforms and has long awaited to be welcomed into the […]

Watching For Putin’s Plan ‘B’ in Ukraine

By James Rupert

With Kremlin’s Proxy War Stumbling, Kyiv and West Guard Against ‘Humanitarian Intervention’ As Russia’s government moves its proposed convoy of humanitarian aid toward the war zone in Ukraine that it has created with its support of separatist militias, Ukraine and Western governments are warning it not to try using Russian military forces on the border […]

New Ukraine Orthodox Leader Signals Continued Church Divide

By Irena Chalupa

Ukrainians’ Traditional Loyalty to Moscow Patriarch is Strained by His Close Tie to Kremlin  The longstanding divide between Ukraine’s two main Orthodox churches will continue with little change following the election yesterday of a new leader, or metropolitan, by the Moscow-aligned faction. Metropolitan Onufriy is a religious conservative loyal to his church’s formal subordination to […]

Ukrainians Will Not Compromise With Russia, Nayyem Says

Ukrainian Journalist Urges West: Don’t Press Kyiv to Halt Advance Four months into their battle with Russia over southeast Ukraine, Ukrainians will not allow their government to compromise Ukraine’s sovereignty in the region, and the international community should not press it to do so, prominent Ukrainian journalist Mustafa Nayyem said at the Atlantic Council. Ukraine […]

Eyewitness: Battle for Ukraine

By The Atlantic Council

On Tuesday, August 12th, the Dinu Patriciu Eurasia Center hosted an on-the-record small group discussion with one of Ukraine’s most prominent journalists, Mustafa Nayyem. The event was introduced and moderated by Atlantic Council Writer and Editor Irena Chalupa.

To confront ISIS, get arms and emergency help to Iraq’s Kurds

By Bina Hussein and David Koranyi

US Has Declined to Arm Kurdish Forces, But That Now Must Change Iraq’s national army effectively has collapsed before the advance of the brutal guerrillas of the Islamic State, leaving only one effective fighting force – the Kurdish peshmerga – to confront them. As the Islamic State in Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) has seized much […]