Washington DC - The former US ambassador to Ukraine said Friday that she resigned last month because of President Donald Trump's policy of "appeasement" in the war launched by Russia against the pro-Western country.

"I cannot stand by while a country is invaded, a democracy bombarded, and children killed with impunity," Bridget Brink said in an essay in the Detroit Free Press.

"I believe that the only way to secure US interests is to stand up for democracies and to stand against autocrats. Peace at any price is not peace at all – it is appeasement."

The State Department announced in April that Brink – who was appointed by Democratic former president Joe Biden – was stepping down.

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Brink took up the ambassador's post in wartime Kyiv in May 2022, three months after Russia launched its bloody attempt to conquer its neighbor, prompting a massive, US-led Western program to arm and support Ukraine.

Since taking back the White House, Trump has upended Biden's Ukraine policy, slowing military aid, reaching out to Russia – and often blaming Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky rather than Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin for the continuation of the war.

Amid pressure from Trump for the two sides to reach a peace deal, talks between Ukrainian and Russian negotiators ended Friday in Istanbul, but with little expectation of major progress.

Brink wrote she had served as a diplomat under five presidents and agreed that her job was to carry out the White House's policies.

"Unfortunately, the policy since the beginning of the Trump administration has been to put pressure on the victim, Ukraine, rather than on the aggressor, Russia," she said.

"As such, I could no longer in good faith carry out the administration's policy and felt it was my duty to step down. After nearly three decades serving our country, I resigned as our ambassador to Ukraine."