Former US Ambassador to Ukraine Resigned Because of Trump’s Foreign Policy

by Kyiv Post | May 16, 2025, 8:39 pm

The former US ambassador to Ukraine accused Trump of blaming the ‘victim’ – Ukraine – instead of the aggressor – Russia. She characterized the administration’s current negotiations as “appeasement.”

source: click on picture

The United States’ former ambassador to Ukraine, Bridgette Brink, resigned in protest last month after nearly 30 years in public service, according to an op-ed penned by the veteran diplomat and published on Friday.

Brink was appointed by former President Joe Biden as US ambassador to Ukraine in April 2022, shortly after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began.

The former ambassador wrote that she believes it is the right of a duly-elected president to make foreign policy decisions, but “unfortunately, the policy since the beginning of the Trump administration has been to put pressure on the victim, Ukraine, rather than on the aggressor, Russia.”

“I cannot stand by while a country is invaded, a democracy bombarded, and children killed with impunity,” the former ambassador said in the Detroit Free Press. “I believe that the only way to secure US interests is to stand up for democracies and to stand against autocrats. Peace at any price is not peace at all - it is appeasement.”

“And history has taught us time and again that appeasement does not lead to safety, security or prosperity. It leads to more war and suffering,” she added.

She described how the experience of being a top diplomat in a war zone over the last three years has changed her:

“For three years, I heard the stories, saw the brutality, and felt the pain of families whose sons and daughters were killed and wounded by Russian missiles and drones that hit playgrounds, churches and schools. Over a career spent in conflict zones, I’ve seen mass atrocities and wanton destruction first-hand but we have never seen violence so systematic, so widespread and so horrifying in Europe since World War II.”

“I may no longer be an American diplomat, but I will never stop believing in the need for American leadership to secure our own future and offer the beacon of hope and possibility for every Michigander, every American and so many others around the world.”

Her departure comes after a long career in the Foreign Service serving under five different presidential administrations.

Brink was the first ambassador appointed to Ukraine since 2019, confirmed by the Senate in 2022, following nearly three years of interim appointees after Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch was fired by US President Donald Trump.

Brink, a native of Michigan, was previously appointed by Trump to be the ambassador to Slovakia earlier in 2019.

Officials have not announced Brink’s replacement yet, but Reuters reported last month that diplomatic sources say Chris Smith, the deputy assistant secretary for Eastern Europe, could emerge as a likely appointment.