[en] This paper provides a brief discussion on the present status of the collision physics of highly charged ions with atoms. The emphasis is on the main achievements in understanding and describing the most important collision processes, and as charge transfer, ionization and Auger-type processes, and even more on those open problems which, due either to their scientific or practical importance, represent challenges to current research in this field. The paper concentrates on general ideas and problems whose development and solutions have advanced or will advance our basic understanding of the collision dynamics of multiply charged ions with atoms