The former US Ambassador to Ukraine on Monday said that “there is no evidence” of a Ukrainian attack on Kremlin strongman Vladimir Putin’s residence in Russia, as was reported in the morning, and said, furthermore, she wonders why US President Trump believes a word Putin says.
“There’s no evidence that there was a strike,” Bridget Brink told CNN. “And the fact that the US President is taking the word of a brutal dictator, over that of our democratic ally, is exactly the problem.”
“And that’s exactly why I had to resign and speak out.”
Brink abdicated her post in Kyiv shortly after Trump began his second term, citing differences with his administration’s view of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
A Democrat first assigned to the embassy in Ukraine by former President Joe Biden, Blink is now running for Congress, for the US House seat representing Michigan’s 7th district, currently held by Republican Tom Barrett.
Russia on Monday accused Ukraine of firing drones at Vladimir Putin’s residence in Valdai, between Moscow and St. Petersburg, announcing it would “revise” its negotiating position on its war on Ukraine after the “terrorist attack.”
In a statement, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Ukraine fired 91 drones at Putin’s “official residence” in the Novgorod region Sunday night, apparently referring to the heavily fortified Valdai presidential residence, on the shores of Lake Valdai in Novgorod Oblast northwest of Moscow.
When asked about the veracity of those reports on Monday afternoon, Trump responded, ‘You’re saying maybe the attack didn’t take place? That’s possible, but President Putin this morning told me it did.”
“Putin lies,” Blink continued in her interview with CNN’s “Erin Burnett Out Front,” referring to Putin’s declaration before February 2022 that he had no intention of invading Ukraine, as well as the oligarch’s denial of his interference in US presidential elections in 2016, contrary to the evidence, leading to Trump’s first term in office.
“You have to wonder, why is our president taking this position?” Blink said.
“If you believe Vanity Fair,” she continued, referencing the magazine’s interview earlier this month with Trump’s chief of staff, Susie Wiles, “Putin wants all of Ukraine. If that’s true, that’s a big problem.”
Finally, Blink was asked about Trump’s latest contention that “Russia wants to see Ukraine succeed.”
“The whole idea is absurd,” she replied. “Putin is actively trying to destroy Ukraine.”
“I lived there [in Kyiv] for three years, under thousands of missiles and drones that were sent to the capital and around the country, and have now killed tens of thousands of civilians, including 700 children.
“So the whole idea that Putin is interested in Ukraine’s success is preposterous,” she said.