Bridget Brink speaks in Kyiv during a press conference following her appointment as the new US ambassador to Ukraine, 2 June 2022. Photo: EPA-EFE / OLEG PETRASYUK
US Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink is leaving her post after three years, the US State Department said on Thursday amid reports that policy disagreements with the administration of US President Donald Trump were behind her decision.
“Ambassador Brink is stepping down. She’s been the ambassador there for three years — that’s a long time in a war zone”, the State Department confirmed in a statement. At a press briefing later on Wednesday, State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce hailed Brink’s “extraordinary performance” in her post.
Brink has served as the US ambassador to Kyiv since her appointment by former US President Joe Biden in May 2022, and has been a staunch advocate of continued US military aid for Ukraine.
According to CBS News, she had initially submitted a resignation application in January as part of the standard turnover of diplomats between presidential administrations, but her application was not accepted by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Citing an unnamed US official, CBS reported that Brink’s resignation was motivated by an “unusual mix of personal and policy concerns” including mass layoffs at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), as well as the fact that she has been serving in Kyiv without her family.
The Financial Times, meanwhile, reported that Brink had recently come under “increasing pressure from senior figures in the Trump administration who had questioned her willingness to support their Ukraine strategy”, with Trump prioritising a swift resolution of the conflict at all costs over continued US support for Ukraine.
Last week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky criticised what he called Brink’s “weak” response to a Russian missile strike on his hometown of Kryvyi Rih that killed 20 people, including nine children.
Though Brink had written on X that she was “horrified” at the attack, which she said showed “why the war must end”, she made no mention of Russia being to blame.
In response, Zelensky said, “Yes, the war must end. But in order to end it, we must not be afraid to call a spade a spade”, accusing US officials of being “even afraid to say the word 'Russian' when talking about the missile that killed the children”.
A Financial Times review of Brink’s posts on X showed a marked change in her tone towards Russia since Trump’s inauguration in January. In the 75 days before Trump took office, Brink made 53 posts criticising Russia and its attacks on Ukraine, the FT said, but in the subsequent 75 days, she mentioned Russia in just five posts.
