Washington — President Biden plans to appoint veteran diplomat Bridget Brink to function the US ambassador to Ukraine, the White Home introduced Monday.
Her nomination requires Senate approval, and if confirmed, Brink, the present U.S. ambassador to Slovakia, would take over as the highest American diplomat in Ukraine because the nation continues to defend itself from Russia’s invasion. A profession overseas service officer, Brink has had assignments in Uzbekistan, Georgia, Cyprus and Serbia, and served because the deputy assistant secretary within the State Division’s Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs. She additionally labored for the White Home Nationwide Safety Council.
The White Home’s formal announcement of Brink as Mr. Biden’s choose for U.S. ambassador to Ukraine got here after Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Protection Secretary Lloyd Austin traveled to Kyiv to fulfill with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The 2 are the highest-ranking U.S. officers to go to Ukraine’s capital metropolis since Russia invaded the nation in late February. Throughout the go to, Blinken informed Zelenskyy of Mr. Biden’s collection of Brink as ambassador.
Aziz Karimov/Pacific Press/LightRocket by way of Getty Pictures
Whereas the U.S. embassy in Ukraine is in Kyiv, the State Division moved embassy operations to Lviv in mid-February in response to Russia’s buildup of troops alongside Ukraine’s borders. Blinken informed reporters after assembly with Zelenskyy that U.S. diplomats, who’ve largely been working in Poland because the begin of the battle in Ukraine, will start returning to the nation this week, after which the State Division will start the method of how one can reopen the embassy within the capital.
“We’re doing it intentionally, we’re doing it fastidiously, we’re doing it with the safety of our personnel foremost in thoughts, however we’re doing it,” Blinken stated.
The U.S. has not had a Senate-confirmed ambassador in Ukraine since spring 2019, when Marie Yovanovitch was pushed out of the submit by former President Donald Trump. Yovanovitch, who would go on to testify within the Home’s impeachment proceedings towards Trump later that yr, stated she was eliminated as a consequence of a smear marketing campaign staged by “overseas corrupt pursuits” in Ukraine who labored alongside allies of the previous president to hurt her repute.
