Biden appoints a high-ranking diplomat as Ukraine’s ambassador.

The White House announced Monday that President Joe Biden has selected Bridget Brink, a career foreign service officer, to be the next US ambassador to Ukraine.

In Brink, Biden has appointed a pro-Russian diplomat as his top envoy in a country that is being invaded on a large extent by Moscow.

Brink, who is now the United States ambassador to Slovakia, might replace a position that has been vacant since 2019.

The White House said in a statement announcing Biden’s selection that she had “spent her twenty-five-year career in the Foreign Service focused on promoting US policy in Europe and Eurasia.”

Brink has also worked as a deputy chief of mission in US embassies in Uzbekistan and Georgia, and was stationed in Belgrade, Serbia, and Cyprus early in her career.

On Sunday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken paid a visit to Kyiv, where he informed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that Biden had nominated Brink for the position.

He also told Zelensky that the US plans to return its diplomats to Kyiv this week, months after they were evacuated and established up operations in Lviv, Ukraine’s westernmost city, and neighboring Poland.

According to a State Department official, while numerous European countries have already reopened their embassies in Kyiv, the return of American diplomats would be gradual.

“We’ve got a crew over the border in Poland who’s been handling this work for us since the start of hostilities,” the official told reporters waiting for Blinken on the Polish side of the border.

Brink’s nomination by Biden will be confirmed by the United States Senate. The chamber is split 50-50, but given the urgency of the situation in Ukraine, Brink is widely expected to be confirmed to the proposal.