U.S. ambassador to Ukraine leaves

Julie Davis, the acting U.S. ambassador in Kyiv, will leave her post in June and retire from the Foreign Service, the State Department said Tuesday. (politico.com) (cbc.ca) State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott said Davis would keep advancing President Donald Trump’s Ukraine policy until she departs in June 2026. He called it “false” to say she was resigning over differences with Trump. (politico.com) (cbc.ca) Davis has served as chargé d’affaires at the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv since May 5, 2025. She took over after Ambassador Bridget Brink stepped down in April 2025 after about three years in the job. (cbc.ca) (marketscreener.com) The departure creates another vacancy in Kyiv while relations between Trump and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy remain strained and U.S.-backed efforts to end the war have stalled. (politico.com) The timing also coincides with another round of cross-border strikes. On April 28, a Ukrainian drone attack set off a major fire at the Tuapse refinery in Russia’s Krasnodar region, the third strike on the Black Sea port in less than two weeks. (straitstimes.com) Ukraine’s military said it carried out the Tuapse strike as part of a campaign against Russia’s oil industry. Reuters reported the refinery had halted production on April 16 after earlier drone damage to port infrastructure. (straitstimes.com) On the Ukrainian side of the border, prosecutors in Kharkiv region said a Russian drone strike hit Chuhuiv at about 9:10 a.m. on April 28. A 70-year-old man was killed at the scene, and a 74-year-old man later died in hospital. (ukrinform.net) Davis is also the U.S. ambassador to Cyprus, and no successor in Kyiv was announced Tuesday. That leaves Washington preparing to lose its top diplomat in Ukraine barely a year after the last ambassador left. (politico.com) (cbc.ca)