Former ambassador to Ukraine: 'Peace at any price is not peace at all'
Bridget Brink, the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, is speaking out about why she left her post last month.
"I resigned from Ukraine and also from the Foreign Service, because the policy since the beginning of the administration was to put pressure on the victim Ukraine, rather than on the aggressor, Russia," Brink told host Margaret Brennan on Sunday on CBS' "Face the Nation." "I fully agree that the war needs to end, but I believe that peace at any price is not peace at all. It's appeasement and, as we know from history, appeasement only leads to more war."
Brink spent three years in Ukraine after attaining unanimous Senate confirmation under former President Joe Biden in May 2022, shortly after Russia began its invasion. In an op-ed for the Detroit Free Press published last Friday, she wrote that she couldn't in good faith adhere to the diplomatic instructions coming out of the new Trump White House.
Trump has made ending the war in Ukraine one of the central parts of his foreign policy prospectus. But for the first few months of his time at the White House, he often directed his ire at Kyiv, rather than Russian President Vladimir Putin.
"It has to be a peace that does things that advance our own interests, and those are really simple," Brink told Brennan. "It's how to keep Ukraine free, how to deter Russia, and how to send the right signal to China. And this is what we should be doing."
For Brink, the first sign was Trump's combative Oval Office press conference with Vice President JD Vance and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, during which Trump and Vance attacked Zelenskyy for being ungrateful and then kicked him out of the White House.
Zelenskyy was "not ready for peace," Trump said in a post on Truth Social, his social media platform.
Brink's public turn comes with Trump scheduled to speak with Putin on the phone Monday. The president has grown increasingly frustrated with Moscow as he pushes for a 30-day unconditional ceasefire between the two countries. Trump in April acknowledged Putin could be "tapping me along" and may not want to stop the war in Ukraine.
At least some Republicans in Congress, meanwhile, are aching to impose new sanctions on Russia.
"We've seen the devastation that happens when we appease aggressors, and we do not want to do that again," Brink said. "So my strong advice in terms of how to deal with Putin and Russia is not to give a single meeting or concession or legitimacy until Putin agrees to an unconditional ceasefire that's verifiable and moves forward toward a just and lasting peace."
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