When US Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink resigned her post two days ago, she was both under pressure from President Volodymyr Zelensky\u2019s office in Kyiv, and feeling the strain of working for her ultimate boss in Washington, President Donald Trump, according to people who knew her. <\/p>\n
At the same time, she was almost three years into a posting in a war zone away from her family \u2013 a situation that had also taken an inevitable toll, people said. An \u201cextraordinary performance,\u201d said a State Department spokesperson, paying tribute. <\/p>\n
Her sudden departure marks the latest upheaval in Washington\u2019s relations with Kyiv since the Trump administration took office and began a dramatic re-orientation of US policy away from Ukraine and toward Russia. <\/p>\n
\u201cShe 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,\u201d the former official said. <\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
\u201cShe took a very rational decision about what she can do right now, in a new environment, under new circumstances,\u201d the official said. <\/p>\n
Brink began her stint in May 2022, just a few months after Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. While Kyiv\u2019s key interlocutors were inside the White House \u2013 National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan in particular played a central role during the Biden era \u2013 Brink maintained a high visibility in country and on social media, promoting the Biden administration\u2019s policy of military and humanitarian aid transfers. <\/p>\n
Western ambassadors who worked alongside her in Ukraine spoke of her work ethic and professionalism. <\/p>\n
The new administration has opened multiple channels to Moscow, following three years of diplomatic isolation. It has switched from supporting Ukraine\u2019s \u201cirreversible path\u201d to NATO membership to all but ruling it out completely. And at one point last month, the US even paused all military aid and intelligence-sharing to force Kyiv to commit to talks to end the war. <\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
\u201cThank you @POTUS for standing up for America in a way that no president has ever had the courage to do before. Thank you for putting America first. America is with you!\u201d read Rubio\u2019s tweet, which Brink separately sent out translated into Ukrainian. <\/p>\n
Seventeen hundred people piled into the comments expressing astonishment that someone who had previously been so vocal in support of Ukraine was now apparently cheering the humiliation of its leader. <\/p>\n
\u201cResign and maintain your dignity,\u201d was one of the more polite responses. Many showed considerably less restraint. <\/p>\n
The second was a tweet sent just a week ago, following a Russian attack on the southern city of Kryvyi Rih which resulted in the heaviest loss of civilian life in a single strike this year. <\/p>\n
\u201cHorrified that tonight a ballistic missile struck near a playground and restaurant in Kryvyi Rih. More than 50 people injured and 16 killed, including six children. This is why the war must end,\u201d she wrote. <\/p>\n
Zelensky himself issued a withering response in his nightly address, drawing attention to her failure to name check Russia. <\/p>\n
\u201cSuch a strong country, such a strong people \u2013 and such a weak reaction. They are even afraid to say the word \u2018Russian\u2019 when talking about the missile that killed children,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Brink did mention Russia in subsequent references to the attack, and the former Ukrainian official expresses sympathy over the predicament she found herself in. <\/p>\n
Confirming Brink\u2019s departure to reporters on Thursday, State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce ducked a suggestion the ambassador had been expressly instructed to reduce public references to Russia, saying she was \u201cnot aware of anything like that,\u201d adding that she \u201cwouldn\u2019t speak to anything regarding \u2026 a diplomat and the internal dynamics that might occur.\u201d <\/p>\n
It was not just relations with her own government that deteriorated as the Trump team took over at the White House, people who know her say. Relations with Zelensky\u2019s office had also long since become difficult. <\/p>\n
The Ukrainian president\u2019s office had grown ever more frustrated by what it saw as the Biden administration\u2019s excessive caution over transfer of weapons such as longer-range tactical missiles known as ATACMs, or F-16 fighter jets, and as the ranking US official in Ukraine, she often bore the brunt, people who knew her said. Her relationship with Zelensky\u2019s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, was particularly strained. <\/p>\n
In addition, she advocated hard for the introduction of anti-corruption measures and reforms aimed at increasing transparency. Back home, these were seen as crucial in winning round skeptics in Congress reluctant to approve Ukraine spending bills for fear the money would be syphoned off. In Kyiv, says Andy Hunder of the American Chamber of Commerce, it made her unpopular. <\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s been very good for the business community in Ukraine \u2026 with a focus on the shadow economy \u2026 but (too often) there wasn\u2019t the political will to do anything about it,\u201d Hunder says. <\/p>\n
A former ambassador from Europe who was in Kyiv at the same time as Brink is more blunt. <\/p>\n
\u201cShe never sugar-coated things \u2026 she was always very clear with them as to the kind of standards against which they would be met in Washington \u2026 and I think that kind of pissed them off.\u201d <\/p>\n
Hunder says he believes by the end Brink was simply exhausted from the political pressures from both governments she had to deal with. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe were lucky, we had a great supporter. Right now, we have uncertainty,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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