Pressures From Kyiv and Washington Led to US Ambassador’s Resignation, Sources Say.
When US Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink resigned her post on Thursday last week, she was both under pressure from President Volodymyr Zelensky’s office in Kyiv, and feeling the strain of working for her ultimate boss in Washington, President Donald Trump, according to people who knew her.
At the same time, she was almost three years into a posting in a war zone away from her family – a situation that had also taken an inevitable toll, people said. An “extraordinary performance,” said a State Department spokesperson, paying tribute.
Her sudden departure marks the latest upheaval in Washington’s relations with Kyiv since the Trump administration took office and began a dramatic re-orientation of US policy away from Ukraine and toward Russia.
A former Ukrainian official with a positive view of Brink told CNN the ambassador felt she could no longer do what was right under the new administration.
“She was a very systematic supporter of Ukraine during her three years (in Kyiv). She did everything her position allowed her to do in order for Ukraine to succeed. Her principles would not allow her to do the opposite,” the former official said.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, he said he had communicated with the ambassador following her decision to leave and stressed it was not an emotional decision she had taken, but one that was carefully considered.
“She took a very rational decision about what she can do right now, in a new environment, under new circumstances,” the official said.
Brink began her stint in May 2022, just a few months after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. While Kyiv’s key interlocutors were inside the White House – National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan in particular played a central role during the Biden era – Brink maintained a high visibility in country and on social media, promoting the Biden administration’s policy of military and humanitarian aid transfers.
Western ambassadors who worked alongside her in Ukraine spoke of her work ethic and professionalism.
“Tough as nails, almost a machine sometimes, but with a kind of authentic engagement and real kind of fire,” one told CNN approvingly.
That toughness was tested throughout her posting, people who know her told CNN, but was challenged to breaking point by Trump’s return to power.
The new administration has opened multiple channels to Moscow, following three years of diplomatic isolation. It has switched from supporting Ukraine’s “irreversible path” to NATO membership to all but ruling it out completely. And at one point last month, the US even paused all military aids and intelligence-sharing to force Kyiv to commit to talks to end the war.
The difficulties in dealing with such a pronounced shift in US policy came to a head for Brink in two of her social media posts.
The first was a retweet of a posting by Secretary of State Marco Rubio just hours after Zelensky was publicly assailed by Trump and his deputy JD Vance at a meeting in the White House at the end of February.
CNN
