Acting US Ambassador to Ukraine Julie Davis resigns, but officials deny reports of falling out with Trump
Kyiv – Acting US Ambassador to Ukraine Julie Davis will leave her post in June, US officials confirmed to CBS News.
US officials told CBS News that Davis, who has held the post in Kyiv for about a year, during a sudden shift in US policy towards. Ukrainehe resigned for professional reasons rather than disagreements with President Trump.
The Financial Times first reported on his imminent departure, saying that this was due to “disagreements” he had with Mr.
“It is false to suggest that Ambassador Davis resigned ‘due to disagreements with Donald Trump,'” State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott told CBS News on Tuesday. “He will retire after 30 distinguished years as a foreign service official. He will proudly continue to advance President Trump’s policies until he officially departs Kyiv in June 2026 and retires from the Department.”
A senior American official close to Davis told CBS News that he decided to resign because he did not see progress at the State Department consistent with his professional aspirations, and that reports of disagreements with Mr. Trump is “wrong.”
Davis assumed his role as chargé d’affaires at the US Embassy in Kyiv on May 5, 2025, following the resignation of former US Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink. Brink, a Democrat now running for Congress in Michigan’s 7th Congressional District, wrote in an op-ed after leaving office that he “could no longer honestly make executive policy and felt it was my duty to resign.”
While serving as chargé d’affaires in Kyiv, Davis remained accredited as the US ambassador to Cyprus, where he has served since 2023, combining his wartime deployments with his previous diplomatic responsibilities.
“Julie Davis is an expert: dedicated to the interests and principles of the US, the Free World, and Ukraine as part of the Free World,” said Daniel Fried, former US Ambassador to Poland, who has known Davis for years.
Davis launched the embassy in Kyiv at a time of changing US policy on Ukraine, Mr. Trump’s Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner often lead diplomatic efforts rather than acting as ambassadors.
In November, Davis was scheduled to host Secretary of Defense Dan Driscoll at the ambassador’s residence during his first visit to Kyiv. But upon his arrival, the Trump administration pressured Ukraine to accept a peace proposal created by meetings between Witkoff and Russian negotiators.
That proposal succeeded after Moscow refused to accept the terms, but Witkoff and Kushner have continued to lead US officials’ efforts to end the war ever since.
In February, US officials mediated two trilateral conferences with Ukrainian and Russian negotiators, which Ukrainian officials told CBS News were the most productive social media in the war. But diplomacy has stalled amid the ongoing US war with Iran.
The last meeting between the American and Ukrainian negotiators took place on March 22.
