Bridget Brink

Bridget Ann Brink (born 1970) is an American diplomat and politician who served as the United States ambassador to Ukraine from 2022 to 2025 under Presidents Joe Biden and Donald Trump. A career Foreign Service officer, she joined the State Department in 1996 and served under five presidents before retiring with the rank of Career Minister. Brink worked mainly on Europe and Eurasia, with postings in Belgrade, Tbilisi and Tashkent. She was director for the Aegean and South Caucasus on the National Security Council from 2009 to 2010, and a deputy assistant secretary in the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs from 2015 to 2018. In 2019, she was appointed as the ninth United States ambassador to Slovakia, where she remained until 2022. Biden nominated Brink to Ukraine in April 2022, two months after the start of the full-scale Russian invasion. She was confirmed by voice vote on May 18, 2022, and she became the first Senate-confirmed ambassador to Ukraine since Marie Yovanovitch was recalled in 2019. Over the next three years she oversaw the delivery of American military and humanitarian help and pushed for anti-corruption reforms in Ukraine. In April 2025, she resigned as ambassador following pressure from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, three years in Ukraine away from her family, and disagreements over the Trump administration's stance on Ukraine. In June 2025 Brink, a Democrat, announced her candidacy for the U.S. House in Michigan's 7th congressional district. She finished second in the August 2026 primary, losing to Sunrise Movement co-founder Will Lawrence.