🔗 Share this article

The US Army Secretary, Dan Driscoll, emerged as an surprising envoy for the White House's newest initiative to resolve the conflict in Ukraine. His close relationship with JD Vance has placed a key ally of the Eurosceptic VP at the center of Donald Trump latest push to conclude the war.

Before his last week's visit to Kyiv, Driscoll was unrecognized as a negotiator or diplomat, and his initial attempts to promote the deal to European policymakers were labeled turbulent.

His strong ties with Vance, with whom he studied and shares a close friendship, signal the resurgence of the non-interventionist VP in negotiations to end the Ukraine crisis.

The VP's Involvement in Ceasefire Efforts

It was Vance who intervened during Ukraine's president's rocky initial trip to the White House in March and insisted he show Trump more courtesy. Now, Ukraine is again pushing back against pressure from the US to accept a quick deal that Ukrainian leaders have called a capitulation.

After a tumultuous initial year in office, international actions in the White House are reportedly shaped by a handful of Trump's top aides, such as top aide Susie Wiles, conservative advisor Stephen Miller, diplomat Steve Witkoff, State Department head Marco Rubio, and finally Vance.

Vance has been a vocal supporter of the recent proposal, which was crafted by Witkoff and Trump's relative Jared Kushner, alongside the Kremlin envoy Kirill Dmitriev.

“All objection of the peace framework the administration is working on either misinterprets the framework or misstates some key situation on the ground,” Vance wrote.

Initial Attempts and European Reactions

Vance's initial efforts at hammering out a ceasefire agreement with Russia, while simultaneously seeking to renew ties with Moscow, were fruitless and left his camp feeling frustrated with their Russian interlocutors. European officials, in turn, were irritated by his initial remarks, in which he charged them of ignoring their constituents, who Vance said held restrictionist and conservative positions similar to those of Trump's own constituency.

However, the recently published ceasefire proposal mirrored his stances, and he has been one of the most forceful spokespeople for the agreement in the government, even as the US has been under fire for accepting a ceasefire plan that mostly echoes Vladimir Putin's maximalist demands.

In social media updates this weekend, Vance asserted that a peace deal would have to establish a truce that respected Ukrainian sovereignty, be agreeable to both sides, and prevent the war from resuming.

“A ceasefire will not be made by unsuccessful negotiators or politicians living in a dream world,” he added. “It could be made by intelligent people operating in the real world.”

It was Vance who followed up on the introduction of the peace plan in a phone call with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had primarily instructed his staff with securing a agreement on the peace deal before Thanksgiving this week in the United States.

Rubio's Reaction and Private Concerns

Vance's stance was a distinctly more enthusiastic endorsement of the proposal than that expressed by the top diplomat and security advisor, Marco Rubio, a more traditional hardliner in the administration who has transitioned from a uncertain position inside the administration to more stable footing.

Rubio was part of a US delegation that went to Geneva this weekend to meet with Ukrainian officials to help moderate the initial 28-point ceasefire proposal in order to make it more acceptable to leaders in Kyiv.

However, his initial reaction to the deal was lukewarm:

“Ending a complicated and violent conflict such as the one in Ukraine demands an extensive exchange of substantive and pragmatic proposals,” Rubio stated recently. “Furthermore, achieving a lasting peace will necessitate both sides to consent to difficult but essential compromises. That is why we are and will persist to develop a set of possible ideas for resolving this war drawing from input from each party of this war.”

Behind closed doors, he was said to be much more doubtful of the proposal. The GOP lawmaker Mike Rounds said recently at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had called legislators to explain that the deal was merely a initial proposal from the Russians and not an initiative pushed by the administration.

“Rubio did make a phone call to us this afternoon and I think he made it very clear to us that we are the receivers of a proposal that was delivered to one of our representatives,” stated Rounds. “The document is not our recommendation, it is not our ceasefire proposal.”

Rubio moved quickly to align himself. “This ceasefire plan was authored by the US,” he later stated. “It is offered as a solid framework for ongoing discussions. The proposal is derived from input from the Moscow. But, it is additionally informed by earlier and current contributions from Ukraine.”