Commentary & Analysis

Russian Campaign in Eastern Ukraine is Losing Steam, ex-US Ambassador Says

By James Rupert

Atlantic Council’s John Herbst Cites Putin Pullbacks, Statements by Russian Leaders in Ukraine Insurgency Today’s announcement by Russia’s government that President Vladimir Putin has ordered a pullback of Russian troops from Ukraine’s border is the latest of a half-dozen signals that “the Russian effort to destabilize eastern Ukraine is losing steam,” according to the director […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

The Untapped Potential of Georgians Abroad

By Darejani Markozashvili and Laura Linderman

Migration has dramatically reshaped Georgia. More than one million people have left the country due to the civil wars, unrest, unemployment, and overall chaos in the country following the breakup of the Soviet Union. This has resulted in a demographic crunch, an aging population, and low birth rates. But Georgians abroad are also the bedrock […]

Countering Russian Propaganda: A Strategy Session with Danylo Lubkivsky

On Thursday, April 24 the Council was pleased to host an off-the-record working lunch conversation with Danylo Lubkivsky, Deputy Foreign Minister of Ukraine.

A New Belarus

A Discussion with Belarussian Think Tank Leaders The crisis in Europe’s East has focused attention specifically on Ukraine and Crimea; however, it is important to address the threat that the events in Ukraine pose to the future of other Central and Eastern European countries. In order to provide an outlook on how Russia’s actions in […]

As China Builds Ability to Attack Satellites, Here is How US Should Respond

By Bharath Gopalaswamy and Dylan Rebstock

As searchers in the Indian Ocean inch toward finding the disappeared Malaysian Airlines Flight 370, a reminder of the rising role of China in space is that the critical first step in learning the plane’s fate was an innovative analysis of routine satellite data – and that Chinese space assets played an unusually prominent role […]