War in Ukraine

Experts from across the Atlantic Council are assessing the consequences of Russia’s February 2022 invasion, including what it means for Ukraine’s sovereignty, Europe’s security, and the United States’ leadership.

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Featured commentary

War in Ukraine

Four years on

Four years since the invasion, Atlantic Council experts are assessing the state of the war and the prospects for peace—and forecasting what the future holds for Ukraine, Russia, NATO, the United States.

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War in Ukraine

Fast Thinking Aug 18, 2025

Was Trump’s summit with Zelenskyy and European leaders a turning point for Russia’s war in Ukraine?

Our experts share their perspectives on what the White House summit means for efforts to end Russia’s war on Ukraine and provide security assurances for Kyiv.

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War in Ukraine

New Atlanticist Aug 15, 2025

Experts react: Trump and Putin just left Alaska without a deal. Here’s what that means for Russia’s war on Ukraine.

By Atlantic Council experts

The US and Russian presidents met in Anchorage for nearly three hours, but the talks did not bring a halt to Russia’s ongoing assault on Ukraine.
Conflict Peacekeeping and Peacebuilding
War in Ukraine

Inflection Points Aug 17, 2025

Will Europe rise to its strategic moment?

By Frederick Kempe

With the future of European security on the line, the Ukrainian president and several European allies will meet with US President Donald Trump on Monday.
Europe & Eurasia NATO
War in Ukraine

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
War in Ukraine

UkraineAlert Aug 7, 2025

Ukraine’s expanding robot army can help address manpower shortages

By David Kirichenko

Robotic systems are in many ways an ideal battlefield solution for Ukraine as the country seeks ways to leverage its proven tech prowess in order to defend itself in a grueling war of attrition against a far larger enemy, writes David Kirichenko.
Conflict Defense Industry
War in Ukraine

UkraineAlert Jul 30, 2025

A Ukraine without Ukrainians: Putin is erasing Europe’s largest nation

By Peter Dickinson

Russia is systematically erasing all traces of Ukrainian national identity throughout occupied Ukraine as Vladimir Putin pursues an extreme form of eliminationist imperialism in the heart of twenty-first century Europe, writes Peter Dickinson.
Civil Society Conflict

WATCH

“Putin’s endgame: The stakes beyond Ukraine,” an Atlantic Council documentary

Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine may be closer to its end than its beginning. How it ends will matter not only for Ukraine, but for the whole of Europe and the wider world. The first-ever documentary from the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center, “Putin’s endgame: The stakes beyond Ukraine,” discusses the threat of Russian aggression beyond Ukraine and the dangers it poses to US interests today and in the future.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Online Event Wed, August 19, 2026 • 9:00 am ET

Ukraine’s humanitarian crisis under Russia’s summer bombardment
Conflict Europe & Eurasia Geopolitics & Energy Security Resilience & Society

PAST EVENTS

Public Event Tue, August 4, 2026 • 10:00 am ET

What is driving Ukraine’s momentum in the war?
Conflict Defense Industry Defense Policy Defense Technologies
Online Event Thu, July 30, 2026 • 1:00 pm ET

Report launch: Outer Russia
Civil Society Europe & Eurasia Media Resilience & Society
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Content

The leaders of Belarus, Russia, Germany, France, and Ukraine, Feb. 11, 2015

NATOSource

Feb 14, 2015

Stephen Walt Makes the Case for Appeasing Russia

By Stephen Walt, Foreign Policy

Those who favor arming Ukraine are also applying “deterrence model” remedies to what is almost certainly a “spiral model” situation.

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In the News

Feb 13, 2015

Herbst on Russian Popular Opinion

By John Herbst

The Star Tribune quotes Dinu Patriciu Eurasia Center Director John Herbst on Russian popular opinion of Putin and the conflict in Ukraine:

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In the News

Feb 13, 2015

Dobriansky: Russia Should Be Prosecuted for its Crimes Against Humanity

Paula J. Dobriansky, who served as Undersecretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs from 2001 to 2009 and is an Atlantic Council Board member, writes in The Washington Post that the International Criminal Court must investigate Russia’s violations in Ukraine: “Russia’s grave violations of international humanitarian norms, especially the law of armed conflict, should […]

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In the News

Feb 13, 2015

Brzezinski on the Ceasefire Agreement for Ukraine

By Ian Brzezinski

Scowcroft Center Senior Fellow Ian Brzezinski joins MSNBC’s Morning Joe to discuss the ceasefire agreement for Ukraine, why he’s pessimistic that it will end the violence, and what the West needs to do to enforce the terms:

Ukraine

In the News

Feb 13, 2015

Herbst: “It’s Certainly not a Very Good Agreement for Ukraine”

By John Herbst

Deutsche Welle quotes Dinu Patriciu Eurasia Center Director John Herbst on the agreement in Minsk and what it means for Ukraine:

Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Feb 13, 2015

Ukraine’s Other War: Parliament Advances Anti-Corruption Fight

By New Atlanticist

Lawmakers Vote to End Their Immunity from Prosecution Members of Ukraine’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, overwhelmingly passed a bill to end their own legal immunity from prosecution, one of the main laws that for years helped Ukraine to the top of Europe’s corruption charts. Article 80 of Ukraine’s constitution protects all Rada members from prosecution […]

Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Feb 13, 2015

Making Ukraine’s ‘Glimmer of Hope’ Sustainable

By Sabine Freizer

If Russia Permits, the Minsk Accord Could Be a Start for Stabilizing Donbas The ceasefire agreement signed by Russia and Ukraine on in Minsk on 12 February offers what German Chancellor Angela Merkel calls “a glimmer of hope, no more no less” for constricting, and eventually ending, the war in southeast Ukraine’s Donbas region. Whether […]

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UkraineAlert

Feb 13, 2015

Russia’s Ukraine War Wins it the Advantage in New Truce Deal

By John E. Herbst

‘Minsk II’ Accord Will Let Moscow Keep Pumping Arms, Fighters into Ukraine’s Donbas With thousands of Ukrainian troops nearly surrounded in Donbas by the freshly armed, Kremlin-directed rebel militias, Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko accepted the Minsk II agreement February 12. The new accord is clearly less advantageous to Kyiv than was the Minsk I agreement, which […]

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Ukrainian armored unit, Jan, 3, 2015

NATOSource

Feb 12, 2015

Mearsheimer: Don’t Arm Ukraine

By John J. Mearsheimer, New York Times

Sending weapons to Ukraine will not rescue its army and will instead lead to an escalation in the fighting. Such a step is especially dangerous because Russia has thousands of nuclear weapons and is seeking to defend a vital strategic interest.

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Ash Carter testifying to Senate Armed Services Committee, Feb. 4, 2015

NATOSource

Feb 12, 2015

Ash Carter’s Priorities for NATO

By John T. Bennett and Paul McLeary, Defense News

The United States and NATO should reject Russian assertions that Moscow is entitled to a “sphere of influence” in Eastern Europe — and build militaries capable of handling “any opponent,” said the nominee to be the next US defense secretary.

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