461 Days For President Biden To Determine He Will Nominate Ambassador To Ukraine… A Career Foreign Service Officer Who Is 763 Miles From Kyiv. Why Was Nominee So Difficult To Select?
The White House
Washington DC
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 25, 2022
President Biden Announces Nominee for Ambassador to Ukraine
”WASHINGTON – Today, President Biden announced his intention to nominate veteran U.S. diplomat Bridget A. Brink to serve as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Ukraine.
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 U.S. Ambassador to the Slovak Republic. Prior to that, she served as Senior Advisor and Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs at the U.S. Department of State, with responsibility for issues related to Eastern Europe and the Caucasus. She also served as Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassies in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, and Tbilisi, Georgia. Brink spent her twenty-five-year career in the Foreign Service focused on advancing U.S. policy in Europe and Eurasia. She was the Director for the Aegean and the South Caucasus at the National Security Council and 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, as well as a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from Kenyon College. She speaks Russian and has studied Slovak, Serbian, Georgian, and French.”
Background
Since 1 January 2020, a career foreign service officer, Kristina Kvien has served as Chargé d'affaires (person in charge of the embassy when there is no ambassador commissioned to the host country) Ad interim (for the time being) at the United States Embassy in Kyiv. Ms. Kvien arrived at the United States Embassy in Kyiv on 28 May 2019.
The last United States Ambassador to Ukraine was Marie Yovanovitch (18 May 2016 to 20 May 2019), a career foreign service officer, appointed during the Obama-Biden Administration (2009-2017) and relieved during the Trump-Pence Administration (2017-2021). Previously, Geoffrey Pyatt (15 August 2013 to 18 August 2016), a career foreign service officer, served as United States Ambassador to Ukraine.
Since 2013, there have been five individuals appointed as Ambassador of Ukraine to the United States: Olexander Motsyk (June 2010 to April 2015), Yaroslav Brisiuck (25 July 2015 to 10 July 2015), Valeriy Chaly (10 July 2015 to 19 July 2019), Volodymyr Yelchenko (19 December 2019 to 25 February 2021), and Oksana Markarova (25 February 2021- Present).
