Senate confirms new ambassador to Ukraine; Russia displaying scaled-down ambition, U.S. says

The Senate on Wednesday night unanimously confirmed career diplomat Bridget A. Brink as the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine.

The confirmation, which was done in a voice vote by Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), makes Brink the first full-fledged ambassador to Ukraine since May 2019, when President Donald Trump recalled Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch.

Brink now serves as ambassador to Slovakia. Her confirmation Wednesday comes less than a month after President Biden first nominated Brink to the Ukraine post and less than two weeks after Brink had her confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee — a rapid pace prompted by the Russian invasion and the growing U.S. aid commitment.

Brink told senators her top priority was coordinating the flow of military and humanitarian aid into Ukraine amid the ongoing invasion.

The Senate is expected to vote Thursday on a new $40 billion aid package, sending it to Biden for his signature.

Schumer said on Wednesday that Brink would be an “outstanding” envoy and would help Ukraine defeat the invasion launched by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“To have no ambassador really hinders our relationship in ways that nobody would want to see,” he said, adding that Brink would serve as a “crucial link as the United States continues to help the Ukrainian people resist the brutal and vicious attacks by Russia.”

Russian troops, stymied by Ukrainian resistance and organizational problems, are now attacking in smaller units, the Pentagon said Wednesday, in a sign they’re paring back their battlefield ambitions. Meanwhile, in Mariupol, local officials warned of a potential environmental disaster at the battered Azovstal industrial complex.

Here’s the latest from some of the key battlegrounds across Ukraine:

Mariupol: Local officials have warned of a possible “environmental catastrophe” during Russia’s siege of the city’s Azovstal steel plant. They said tens of thousands of tons of toxic chemicals stored there could leak into the Sea of Azov, and subsequently the Black and Mediterranean seas. The city’s mayor is calling for the immediate admission of international experts and United Nations officials to the site to ward off a disaster.

Donetsk region: Russian forces killed 10 civilians, including two children, in this eastern region Wednesday, Pavlo Kyrylenko, the region’s governor, said on the Telegram messaging app. The exact number the exact number of dead in Mariupol, located on the southern tip of this region, was “impossible to determine,” he said.

Luhansk region: This region was without electricity, according to its governor, Serhiy Haidai, because power lines were cut and a major substation was damaged during fighting. Concerns are also growing about water supplies, with some areas going without water for more than a week, according to local officials.

Kyiv region: As of Wednesday, authorities had located the bodies of 1,288 civilians killed by Russian forces during their occupation of towns and villages in the Kyiv region in the early phase of the conflict, regional police chief Andriy Niebytov told local media in a televised interview. The Post could not verify that number, which appears to have grown since April.

Alex Horton and Reis Thebault contributed to this report.

Ukraine evacuated its remaining combatants from besieged Mariupol on Monday, ending its last stand to prevent Russia from capturing the strategic port city after weeks of heavy Russian bombardment.

“Ukraine needs Ukrainian heroes alive,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his nightly address.

Hundreds of fighters, many of them seriously wounded, had been hiding in Mariupol’s sprawling Azovstal Iron and Steel Works and its network of tunnels. Combatants included members of Ukraine’s Azov Regiment, a highly skilled military unit with controversial ties.

Officials in Ukraine say that as many as 20,000 civilians in Mariupol may have been killed during the Russian siege.

Here’s what to know about the siege of Mariupol — and the humanitarian catastrophe unfolding there now.

Ukrainian authorities have brought war crimes charges against two more Russian troops, the general prosecutor’s office said, and their trial is set to begin Thursday, one day after a 21-year-old Russian soldier pleaded guilty in a Kyiv court in the war’s first such proceeding.

Prosecutors say the pair of soldiers operated a Russian truck-mounted rocket launcher — one man allegedly drove, while the other gunned — that fired on and struck civilian targets in the Kharkiv region. They’ll stand trial in the Poltava region, in central Ukraine southwest of Kharkiv.

It will be the second case brought against Russians in as many weeks, part of Ukrainian law enforcement’s effort to secure some measure of accountability for atrocities committed during the invasion.

In the first trial, Vadim Shishimarin was accused of shooting and killing a 62-year-old Ukrainian during the war’s first weeks. On Wednesday, he “confirmed that he fully admits his guilt,” Ukraine’s public broadcaster reported. The trial is scheduled to resume Thursday, and Shishimarin may testify, the prosecutor’s office said.

More than 80 days into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, talks to end the bloody and grinding war have stalled, with one of Kyiv’s top negotiators on Wednesday calling the process “impossible.”

In an interview with Ukraine’s Radio NV, presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak confirmed that talks are still suspended.

“Today, it is impossible,” said Podolyak, a key member of Ukraine’s delegation to the peace talks. “Russia still does not understand the consequences of the war. It has illusions that they can achieve some military success in the east of Ukraine — this is not so.”

The Kremlin, he said, “lives in its own propaganda” and Russia “has not yet fully understood that it is a rogue state.”

The public finger-pointing has reached new levels in recent days, with each side blaming the other for the impasse. On Tuesday, Russia’s deputy foreign minister said there were no talks “in any form” because Ukraine has “practically withdrawn” from the negotiations. And another Russian negotiator that day accused Washington of meddling in the discussions but provided no evidence.

As Ukrainian forces have repelled Russian attacks — and witnessed the brutal path Moscow’s troops have cut through the country — Kyiv appears to have hardened its stance, while Russian President Vladimir Putin seems committed to making military gains.

Robyn Dixon contributed to this report.

The European Union on Wednesday urged members to work together to replenish their stockpiles of military equipment and strengthen their defense capabilities, offering financial assistance to help them do so.

The European Commission, the executive branch of the E.U., said in a statement that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine “has significant implications for European defense” and has led to increased military spending by member states. The commission identified three urgent priorities: Replenishing stockpiles, replacing Soviet-era systems and reinforcing air and missile defense systems.

Five hundred million euros of the E.U. budget over two years will go toward helping members fill needs in a collaborative way.

The commission plans to establish a joint procurement task force that will determine what equipment is needed in the short term and ensure member states’ purchases are do not conflict with one another as they face the “new security system.” The task force will also coordinate military assistance to Ukraine.

In the longer term, the commission said it wants to strengthen its capabilities in the air, land, maritime, space and cyberdefense domains.

Some E.U. countries are already collaborating to step up their defenses. Finland and Sweden plan to buy firearms and antitank weapons together, Reuters reported on Wednesday. The agreement, announced by Finland’s defense ministry, allows the purchase of missiles, rifles, ammunition and other equipment.

Western nations founded NATO in 1949 as a means of collective security against the Soviet Union and its allies. But for more than 70 years, two European countries — Finland and Sweden — declined to join the alliance, instead pursuing careful Cold War policies of neutrality and nonalignment.

Now, less than three months after Russia invaded Ukraine, both Finland and Sweden have abandoned those policies and formally requested to join NATO. On Wednesday, the two countries delivered letters to NATO’s headquarters in Brussels to mark the official start of the accession process.

It is a move that will transform Europe’s security landscape and expand Russia’s border with NATO. Finland and Sweden, both functioning democracies with well-trained armies, will also gain protection under the alliance’s Article 5 collective defense mechanism.

Here’s how the two nations got here.