Former US Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink said she resigned in April 2025 due to the foreign policy of the US President Donald Trump.
She wrote about this in a column for the Detroit Free Press.
Brink said the last three years working in Ukraine were the “most challenging” of her life. She stressed that she was committed to supporting Ukraine in the face of “brutal and unprovoked aggression by Russia” and to the United States.
"I respect the right and responsibility of the president to determine US foreign policy — provided that there are appropriate checks and balances from Congress. The task of the US Foreign Service is to implement this policy. But, unfortunately, with the beginning of the Trump administration, the policy began to consist of pressure on the victim — Ukraine, and not on the aggressor — Russia," said Bridget Brink.
According to Brink, she resigned due to a “moral obligation” and “the inability to conscientiously implement state policy”. And she noted that peace at any cost is not peace, but appeasement of the aggressor.
"I cannot stand by while a country is being taken over, democracy is being destroyed, and children are being killed with impunity. I am convinced that the only way to protect US interests is to protect democracies and oppose autocrats," the former ambassador emphasized.
Separately, Brink emphasizes the scale of Russian crimes in Ukraine. She calls Russiaʼs actions "pure evil" — since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, Russia has committed more than 150 000 war crimes and kidnapped 20 000 children from their families. Brink says that Europe has not seen such a large-scale act of violence and cruelty since World War II. And this is why so much depends on the actions of the United States, she believes.
"If we allow Putin to change borders by force, he will not stop at Ukraine. He himself says that his goal is to restore the imperial past. And this is not possible without threatening our NATO allies," Brink emphasized.
And if Putin succeeds, she says, it will send a signal to China, which will destabilize the security balance in Asia and around the world, posing an immediate challenge to American security, the economy, and our way of life.
At the end of the column, Brink concludes that the US must demonstrate leadership in the face of aggression, not weakness or indifference.
"When America does not lead the free world, our own success as a nation is at risk," she believes.
- Bridget Brink officially became the US ambassador to Ukraine in May 2022. Before that, she was the US ambassador to Slovakia and also worked in the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs of the US Department of State. The reasons for her resignation were not officially announced.
- Brink has repeatedly said that serving as US ambassador to Ukraine at this critical moment in history was “the honor of a lifetime”. She emphasized that in the early days, her mission was to help Ukraine remain free.
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