KYIV, Ukraine – US Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink in the hot seat.
In the biggest diplomatic assignment of her career, she’s in the middle of a war with flak coming at her from all sides.
Fox News caught up with her while she was on a tour, at Kyiv’s main train station, which now doubles as a huge charging and heating center for the city’s residents left without power due to a massive Russian missile barrage on the power grid here. Millions have been left out in the cold.
“It’s awful, it’s inconceivable,” he told Fox News. “What is happening in our judgment are war crimes.”
FILE – Bridget Brink, pictured here in her role as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, speaks during a news conference in Azerbaijan in 2018.
(Aziz Karimov/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images)
Brink’s specialty in his 25-year career has been Europe, where there has been much controversy in the ‘grey area’. For the ambassador, this is black and white.
EUROPE OFFICIALS SAY US PROFITS FROM WAR IN UKRAINE, CALL REDUCING INFLATION LAW ‘VERY WORRYING’
“It’s about freedom, about the struggle between good and evil,” he said. “We think it is absolutely essential that Russia faces a strategic defeat and that Ukraine prevails.”
There has been a flurry of reports in recent weeks that Washington is trying to pressure Kiev into at least considering talking to Moscow. Brink doesn’t believe it.
“It will be up to the Ukrainians to decide when and how they want to negotiate,” he told Fox News.
US Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink.
(Fox News)
STRIKES AT UKRAINIAN HOSPITAL KILLED 2-DAY-AGED BABY, OFFICIALS SAY
Spurred on by politicians’ comments, there was also speculation that as Republicans take control of the House, there could be cuts in aid to Ukraine. Brink remains positive.
“I felt full and complete support,” he commented, “not just, of course, from the president, but from bipartisan members of Congress.” You noted that “liability” would be a constant feature of disbursements of funds.
US Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink.
(Fox News)
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
As complex as this nine-month war is becoming, Brink still thinks its resolution is simple enough.
“I think Russia can stop this war tomorrow,” he summed up. “Russia can stop the war and withdraw her troops, and the war will end.”
That’s easier said than done, but America’s top diplomat in Kiev is trying.
