Fiona Hill doesn’t know whether President Joe Biden can lead Western allies to ward off Russia’s threat to Ukraine. But unlike his predecessor, he’s trying.

Hill has a special vantage point on this slow-rolling crisis that US officials say could bring war in Europe at any moment. As a White House national security aide, she advised then-President Donald Trump on Russia and Ukraine – and became a star witness in impeachment proceedings that resulted from his conduct.

Now, outside the government as a Brookings Institution senior fellow, she’s among the Russia specialists Biden has consulted as he revives foreign policy priorities shared by every president since