Joe Biden Picks U.S. Ambassador To Ukraine
According to an administration official transmitting a message in Poland on Sunday, President Joe Biden will formally nominate experienced diplomat Bridget Brink as the United States’ ambassador to Ukraine on Monday.
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As Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, reporters were told that the diplomatic post, which has been vacant for more than two years, is expected to be filled by a career foreign service officer who has served as the US ambassador to Slovakia since July 2019.
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The revelation came as Russian President Vladimir Putin’s two-month-long invasion of Ukraine came to an end on Sunday. Brink’s appointment as ambassador to Ukraine has apparently been in the works since at least early February, prior to the outbreak of the fighting, according to a US person familiar with the matter (AP).
Marie Yovanovitch, the final diplomatic ambassador to Ukraine, was fired by US President Donald Trump in May 2019.
Who Is Bridget Brink?
Brink, who is currently the US ambassador to Slovakia, formerly worked on the National Security Council and at US embassies in Serbia, Uzbekistan, Georgia, and other countries. Brink has spent the majority of his career in the foreign service, focusing on Europe and Eurasia.
Brink, who is originally from Michigan, was appointed to her present position by Trump after most recently serving as deputy assistant secretary of state in the Department of State’s Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs. She previously served as deputy chief of mission in the US embassies in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, and Tbilisi, Georgia, from 2011 to 2015.
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According to non-profit Ukrainian media outlet European Pravda, Brink’s knowledge in Ukrainian affairs is “limited,” citing Ukrainian analysts who describe her as a diplomat who specialises in European “hotspots.”
Ukraine was one of Brink’s responsibilities as deputy assistant secretary in the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs at the Department of State in 2015.
Brink can communicate in Russian, Serbian, Georgian, and French. She graduated from Kenyon College with a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science and a Master’s degree in International Relations and Political Theory from the London School of Economics and Political Science.
Is Brink Likely to Be Confirmed?
Shortly after Yovanovitch was removed as U.S. ambassador to Ukraine by Trump, William B. Taylor Jr., a retired veteran diplomat, assumed the position on a temporary basis until early 2020.
Responding to the news that Brink will soon be named as Biden’s pick for the role, Taylor told The New York Times that it’s been “a long time coming.”
“I’m glad it’s finally happening,” he said. “It will be great to have a Senate-confirmed ambassador out there who clearly has the authority to speak to the president.”
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This online platform reports that Taylor believes Brink will receive bipartisan support in Congress because several Republican senators have backed Trump’s efforts to assist Ukraine following Putin’s invasion on February 24.
According to The New York Times, US officials had been waiting for approval from the Ukrainian government before publicising Brink’s name. According to the Associated Press, Kyiv was still vetting Brink in February.
Newsweek has contacted Brink and White House officials for comment.
