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The acting U.S. ambassador to Ukraine will leave her post this June, after spending barely a year in the role.
Julie Davis will officially depart Kyiv at that time and retire from the U.S. diplomatic service, said Tommy Pigott, a U.S. State Department spokesperson, in an emailed statement.
Davis, a career foreign service officer, assumed her duties as chargé d’affaires a.i. at the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv on May 5, 2025.
She took on that job after Bridget A. Brink, the previous U.S. ambassador in Kyiv and fellow career diplomat, stepped down in April 2025, after serving in the role for three years.
Brink, who is making a bid for a seat in Congress, has said she resigned over the Trump administration’s policy toward Ukraine.
Pigott, the State Department spokesperson, denied reports suggesting Davis was likewise leaving Kyiv over reported differences with U.S. President Donald Trump over Ukraine.
“Ambassador Davis has been a steadfast proponent of the Trump administration’s efforts to bring about a durable peace between Russia and Ukraine,” Pigott said, who indicated it was “false” to suggest her resignation stemmed from differences with the president.
Ukraine has been in a state of all-out war since Russia launched a full-scale invasion of its borders in February 2022.
Before regaining the presidency, Trump had suggested he could quickly bring an end to the war when he got back to the White House.
However, more than a year into his second term as president, the war continues.
With the Trump administration managing a two-month-old conflict with Iran that has yet to be resolved, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Tuesday that Kyiv believes the four-year-old war in Ukraine is not the U.S. government’s priority at the moment.
“We understand how the war in Iran is affecting the mindset of the American team,” Zelenskyy said in a video posted to X.
“The Americans are focused on something else — not this war here in Europe,” he said.
