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Acting US ambassador to Ukraine Julie Davis is to step down in June and retire from diplomatic service, the US State Department announced on Wednesday, amid reports that the decision might stem from Washington’s approach to Ukraine.
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Davis has been the US “chargé d’affaires” in Kyiv for nearly a year after her predecessor Bridget Brink resigned in April 2025 and openly criticised the Trump administration over its treatment of Ukraine and Russia’s full-scale invasion.
According to media reports, the US State Department rejected suggestions that Davis was resigning over policy differences with US President Donald Trump.
Former US Ambassador Bridget Brink, who served in Kyiv from 2022 until spring 2025 commented on Davis’ stepping down, saying she resigned when Trump “kept siding with (Russian President Vladimir) Putin over our democratic partner.”
“Now, my successor is doing the same,” Brink said in a post on X on Wednesday.
‘Peace at any price is not peace at all’
Just one month after her resignation last year, Brink publicly stated that she had left the job due to the US administration’s foreign policy and its direction towards Ukraine, only a few months into Trump’s second term.
“I could no longer in good faith carry out the administration’s policy and felt it was my duty to step down,” Brink said at the time.
Brink admitted that remaining in her position would have made her “complicit” in a course of action she considers “dangerous and immoral”.
“I cannot stand by while a country is invaded, a democracy bombarded, and children killed with impunity,” she said in May 2025. “Peace at any price is not peace at all — it is appeasement.”
After nearly three decades in diplomacy, Brink, a Democratic Party member, is now running for Congress in Michigan.
Since Brink’s resignation, the US ambassador’s post in Kyiv has been officially vacant.
Davis has not been confirmed as the US ambassador to Ukraine by the US Senate, and she has also served as the US ambassador to Cyprus since 2023, holding a dual role during her time in Kyiv.
It remains unclear who would succeed Davis or when a permanent ambassador might be nominated.
The US-led diplomatic efforts to put an end to Russia’s all-out war in Ukraine have stalled in recent weeks, with no clarity over when the talks might resume and with no progress in sight.
