Biden has selected Bridget Brink, the current US ambassador to Slovakia, but hasn’t officially nominated her yet because the Ukrainian government hasn’t signed off, according to a source familiar.
Getting approval from the foreign government is part of the standard process in selecting ambassadors and can usually take anywhere from days to weeks. A source close to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told CNN on Monday that the Ukrainian government is still vetting Brink.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said recently the US ambassador to Ukraine would be announced “very shortly,” adding, “I can tell you that when an ambassador is nominated, that person will have the full confidence of the President of the United States, that person will be someone that is well known to me and with whom I have a close relationship, and that person will have very demonstrable expertise and knowledge in this region.”
The President said in a statement that the US “made clear to the international community the full implications of that threat — not just for Ukraine, but for core tenets of the UN Charter and the modern international order.”
A senior official said “specific sanctions packages” have been developed against Russian elites “in or near the inner circles of the Kremlin and play a role in government decision-making, or are at a minimum complicit in the Kremlin’s destabilizing behavior.” Their families would be sanctioned too, the official said.
Biden said last week he would consider sanctioning Russian President Vladimir Putin himself if Russia invaded. But the official declined to reveal the names of the particular individuals the US is eying for potential sanctions, since the administration does not want the individuals to have any prior warning.
This story has been updated with additional information.
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