Former US Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink on Sunday revealed publicly for the first time why she left her post last month. She spoke out a day after US President Donald Trump announced that he would call both Putin and Zelenskyy on Monday, the 19th of May, to seek an agreement on ending the “bloodshed” in Ukraine, according to Politico.
“I resigned from my post in Ukraine and also from the foreign service because since the beginning of the administration, the policy was to put pressure on the victim, Ukraine, not on the aggressor, Russia,” Brink said on “Face the Nation”.
“I fully agree that the war must end, but I believe that peace at any price is no peace at all. It is appeasement and, as we know from history, appeasement only leads to more war.”
Brink spent three years in Ukraine after being confirmed by the Senate in May 2022 shortly after Russia launched a full-scale invasion.
In an op-ed published last Friday in the Detroit Free Press, she wrote that she could not in good faith follow the diplomatic instructions coming from the new Trump administration.
Trump has made ending the war in Ukraine one of the main goals of his foreign policy. However, in his first months in the White House, he has often turned against Kyiv rather than against Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“It has to be a peace that promotes our own interests, and those are really simple,” Brink said on Sunday. “Namely, how to keep Ukraine free, how to deter Russia and how to send the right signal to China.”
The first sign for Brink was Trump’s combative press conference in the Oval Office with Vice President JD Vance and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
BRINK’S PUBLIC STATEMENT COMES AT A TIME WHEN TRUMP IS SCHEDULED TO HAVE A TELEPHONE CONVERSATION WITH PUTIN ON MONDAY.
The President has become increasingly frustrated with Moscow as he insists on a 30-day unconditional ceasefire, which the Kremlin is reluctant to accept. Trump admitted in April that Putin might not want to stop the war in Ukraine.
Meanwhile, at least some Republicans in Congress want to impose new sanctions on Russia.
“We have seen the devastation that happens when we appease aggressors, and we should not let that happen again,” Brink said. “So my strong advice on how to deal with Putin and Russia is to not allow any meetings or concessions or legitimacy until Putin agrees to an unconditional ceasefire that is verifiable and moves towards a just and lasting peace.”
Moscow fired 273 drones at Ukraine on Sunday, two days after Russian President Vladimir Putin in Turkey also abandoned his own initiated ceasefire talks with Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in the biggest attack since the Kremlin launched the invasion.
A woman was killed in the Kyiv region, while eastern Dnipropetrovsk and Donetsk regions were also targeted, officials said.
Later on Sunday, Zelenskyy met US Vice-President Vance and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Rome, where the Ukrainian leader reiterated his call for more pressure on Moscow to stop the invasion.