President Biden Announces Nominee for Ambassador to Ukraine

Washington, DC – President Biden announced his intention to nominate veteran US diplomat Bridget A. Brink to serve as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Ukraine. She is currently the US Ambassador to Slovakia.

Yesterday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, Minister of Defense Oleksiy Reznikov, Head of Presidential Administration Andriy Yermak, Chief of Defense General Valeriy Zaluzhny, and Ambassador Oksana Markarova. During their meeting, Secretary Blinken shared that President Biden will nominate Bridget Brink, currently the US Ambassador to Slovakia, to be the next US Ambassador to Ukraine. Secretary Blinken also informed them that US diplomats would be returning to Ukraine this week.

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 US Ambassador to the Slovak Republic. Before that, she served as Senior Advisor and Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs at the US Department of State, responsible for issues related to Eastern Europe and the Caucasus. She also served as Deputy Chief of Mission at the US Embassies in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, and Tbilisi, Georgia. Brink spent her twenty-five-year career in the Foreign Service focused on advancing US policy in Europe and Eurasia. She was the Director for the Aegean and the South Caucasus at the National Security Council. She 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 and a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from Kenyon College. She speaks Russian and has studied Slovak, Serbian, Georgian, and French.

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