Last updated on July 18th, 2023 at 01:51 pm
The US has been without an ambassador to Ukraine since Trump fired his while trying to blackmail the Ukrainians. That changed under Joe Biden.
The White House announced in a statement provided to PoliticusUSA:
Today, President Biden announced his intention to nominate veteran U.S. diplomat Bridget A. Brink to serve as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Ukraine.
Bridget A. Brink, Nominee for Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Ukraine
Bridget A. Brink, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, currently serves as the U.S. Ambassador to the Slovak Republic. Prior to that, she served as Senior Advisor and Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs at the U.S. Department of State, with responsibility for issues related to Eastern Europe and the Caucasus. She also served as Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassies in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, and Tbilisi, Georgia. Brink spent her twenty-five-year career in the Foreign Service focused on advancing U.S. policy in Europe and Eurasia. She was the Director for the Aegean and the South Caucasus at the National Security Council and served in the State Department as the Deputy Director for Southern European Affairs, Special Assistant to the Under Secretary for Political Affairs, and Cyprus Desk Officer. She began her career in Belgrade, Serbia.
Originally from Michigan, Brink is the recipient of numerous performance awards. She holds Master’s degrees in International Relations and Political Theory from the London School of Economics and Political Science, as well as a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from Kenyon College. She speaks Russian and has studied Slovak, Serbian, Georgian, and French.
The US has not had an ambassador to Ukraine since Trump pushed out Marie Yovanovitch at the urging of Rudy Giuliani and Putin aligned Ukrainians because she would not go along with Trump’s plan to blackmail Ukraine for fake dirt on Joe Biden.
Yovanovitch later provided key testimony at Trump’s first impeachment hearings.
One of the challenges that the Biden administration has faced is that Donald Trump gutted the executive branch of the federal government. Four years into his term, Trump had hundreds of unfilled positions that required Senate confirmation.
Biden doesn’t just have to fill the normal openings caused by an administration change. He also has to rebuild the executive branch that Trump wrecked.
President Biden is showing his commitment to Ukraine by restoring the ambassador. Expect at least one Senate Republican to try to delay this nomination, but Bridget Brink will be confirmed.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
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