Biden selects Bridget Brink as U.S. ambassador to Ukraine

Washington – President Biden plans to appoint a veteran diplomat Bridget Brink to serve as U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, the White House announced Monday.

His nomination requires Senate approval, and if confirmed, Brink, the current U.S. ambassador to Slovakia, would take over as the top U.S. diplomat in Ukraine as a nation. he continues to defend himself of the invasion of Russia. Brink, a career foreign service officer, has held assignments in Uzbekistan, Georgia, Cyprus and Serbia, and served as Deputy Undersecretary in the Office of European and Eurasian Affairs of the State Department. He also worked for the White House National Security Council.

Brink White House formal announcement of Mr. Biden’s election as U.S. ambassador to Ukraine came after Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin traveled to Kyiv meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Both are the highest-ranking U.S. officials who have visited the Ukrainian capital since Russia invaded the country in late February. During the visit, Blinken told Zelenskyy about Brink’s selection by Mr. Biden as ambassador.

While the US Embassy in Ukraine is in Kyiv, the State Department moved the operations of the embassy in Lviv in mid-February in response to the accumulation of Russian troops along the borders of Ukraine. Blinken told reporters after meeting with Zelenskyy that US diplomats, who have been working largely in Poland since the start of the war in Ukraine, will begin returning to the country this week, following the which the State Department will begin the process of studying how to reopen the embassy in the capital.

“We do it deliberately, we do it carefully, we do it with the safety of our staff in mind, but we’re doing it,” Blinken said.

The US has not had a Senate-confirmed ambassador to Ukraine since the spring of 2019, when Marie Yovanovich he was ousted from office by former President Donald Trump. Yovanovitch, who will testify in the House impeachment proceedings against Trump later that year, said she was fired because of a smear campaign organized by “corrupt foreign interests” in Ukraine working alongside allies. of the former president to damage his reputation.