Victoria Nuland, senior U.S. diplomat, to retire: State Department

The State Department on Tuesday announced that Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland will retire after decades in foreign affairs.

Nuland's career has seen her hold critical roles over several administrations, serving as U.S. Ambassador to NATO under President George W. Bush, State Department Spokeswoman under President Barack Obama, Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs in the same administration, and her present role with the Biden administration.

She is widely regarded as a vocal critic of the Russian government and an advocate for hawkish policies against Moscow. In a statement on her departure, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that "Toria’s leadership on Ukraine that diplomats and students of foreign policy will study for years to come."

"Her efforts have been indispensable to confronting Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, marshaling a global coalition to ensure his strategic failure, and helping Ukraine work toward the day when it will be able to stand strongly on its own feet – democratically, economically, and militarily," he continued.

Russian officials suggested the retirement was indicative of failed American policy toward Russia amid the ongoing Ukraine War.

"They won’t tell you the reason. But it is simple - the failure of the anti-Russian course of the Biden administration. Russophobia, proposed by Victoria Nuland as the main foreign policy concept of the United States, is dragging the Democrats to the bottom like a stone," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said, according to the Associated Press.

Ben Whedon is an editor and reporter for Just the News. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter.