Biden Nominates Bridget Brink as Ambassador to Ukraine After Three Year Vacancy
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken Meeting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv on Sunday, April 24 2022. Photo: Ukrainian Presidential Press Service / Reuters
President Biden nominated veteran foreign service officer Bridget Brink to serve as the US ambassador to Ukraine. The post has been vacant since May of 2019, after then-President Donald Trump recalled Marie Yovanovitch from her post at the urging of his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, who was attempting to find politically damaging information on the Biden family in Ukraine on Mr Trump’s behalf.
The American embassy in Kyiv has been deserted since the end of February, when the US decided to evacuate all diplomats from the country following Russia's invasion. US diplomats are currently managing relations with Ukraine from the Polish border town of Rzeszow. The nomination comes as the administration seeks to restore the US’s diplomatic presence in Ukraine.
On behalf of the State Department, a spokesperson told Government Executive that the US is “constantly reassessing and evaluating the security situation, and [looking] forward to resuming embassy operations in Ukraine to facilitate our support to the government and people of Ukraine as they bravely defend their country.”
Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken previously claimed that the State Department has grown too risk averse, and that diplomats could not be expected to work effectively if they were not prepared to accept any risk. “A world of zero risk is not a world in which American diplomacy can deliver. We have to accept risk, and manage it smartly,” he announced in remarks given at the Foreign Service Institute in October of last year.
Brink joined the State Department in 1996 and has served in Serbia, Uzbekistan, and Georgia. She currently works as the US ambassador to Slovakia, a position she was appointed to by President Trump in 2019. Slovakia has been instrumental in during the invasion of Ukraine, providing them a S-300 air defense system and accepting fleeing refugees.
Visiting the 60-mile border Slovakia shares with Ukraine immediately following the invasion, Brink commended Slovakia and its people for their compassion and hospitality. “Amidst the heartbreaking scene of Ukrainian women and children crossing the border with Slovakia on foot, is incredible and professional work being done by Slovaks to welcome people escaping hostilities.”
Brink’s experience has received praise from a number of career foreign service officials, with Daniel Fried, the former ambassador to Poland calling her “not reckless, but fearless” and claiming she is well respected in the diplomatic community.
Democratic and Republican lawmakers alike have criticized Biden for the delay in announcing a nominee for the ambassador post, and are reportedly supportive of his choice. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer tweeted on Monday that the Senate will move quickly to confirm Brink, calling her “an excellent choice to lead our diplomatic mission as we continue standing with the Ukrainian people'.' On the other side of the aisle, an aide to a Senate Republican claimed he did not envision resistance from the Senate GOP, even though they have blocked and delayed a number of the President’s nominations to diplomatic posts.
The nomination comes as the US continues to provide military assistance to Ukraine. Congress has already approved $13.6 billion in emergency spending for Ukraine’s defense strategy, one of the largest packages of US foreign aid to any country in the last ten years. The funds include the cost of deployment of US troops to stations in Europe.
In a secret trip to Ukraine’s capital last week, Secretary Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin III met with President Zelensky to discuss how the US might further help the country in their ongoing struggle with Russia. Mr Zelensky allegedly pleaded for additional military aid, whilst a Ukrainian lawmaker added that the trip could serve as a “powerful signal to Russia that Ukraine will not be left alone with this war”.