WASHINGTON – US President Joe Biden announced his decision to nominate Bridget Brink to fill the position of US Ambassador to Ukraine, which has been vacant since May 2019.

According to reports, the White House made the announcement on Monday, immediately after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin held a press conference at an undisclosed location near the Polish-Ukrainian border following a secret visit to Kiev, where they met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Blinken told Zelensky that the US is committed to "a number of things" regarding Ukraine in its military conflict with Russia, including "President Biden's target to nominate a new Ambassador to Ukraine, Ambassador Bridget Brink." The Secretary of State of the United States described.

Brink, a Michigan native appointed by former President Donald Trump to serve as the US Ambassador to Slovakia in August 2019, was described by the US Secretary of State as "deeply experienced in the region, who'll be a very strong representative for the United States in Ukraine." Since May 2019, when Trump recalled then-Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch over allegations that she was undermining the former President's efforts to press Ukraine to investigate the Biden family's business ties with the country, the US has been without a Senate-confirmed Ambassador to Ukraine.

Blinken also stated that US diplomats who fled Ukraine due to the conflict will return next week and "begin the process of looking at how we actually reopen" the US embassy in Kiev, which was closed in 2014.

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