🔗 Share this article

America's Secretary of the Army, Dan Driscoll, emerged as an surprising envoy for the White House's newest proposal to resolve the Russian invasion in Ukraine. His close relationship with Vice President Vance has positioned a close associate of the Eurosceptic vice-president at the center of Donald Trump recent effort to settle the war.

Before his recent trip to Kyiv, Driscoll was unrecognized as a negotiator or statesman, and his early efforts to sell the agreement to European policymakers were described as chaotic.

His close relationship with Vance, who he attended Yale and shares a personal bond, indicate the rising influence of the non-interventionist vice-president in negotiations to end the Ukraine crisis.

Vance's Involvement in Peace Negotiations

This was Vance who stepped in during Ukraine's president's rocky first visit to the Trump White House in March and insisted he show Trump more courtesy. Currently, Ukraine is again resisting pressure from the US to agree to a quick deal that Ukrainian leaders have described as a surrender.

Following a chaotic initial year in power, foreign policy decisions in the White House are said to be shaped by a handful of Trump's key aides, such as top aide Susie Wiles, rightwing advisor Stephen Miller, diplomat Steve Witkoff, State Department head Marco Rubio, and finally Vance.

Vance has been a outspoken advocate of the recent plan, which was developed by Witkoff and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, together with the Russian diplomat Kirill Dmitriev.

“Every objection of the ceasefire plan the administration is working on either misunderstands the proposal or misstates some key situation on the ground,” Vance stated.

Early Attempts and EU Responses

Vance's early attempts at negotiating a ceasefire agreement with Russia, while simultaneously seeking to restore relations with Moscow, were unsuccessful and left his camp feeling frustrated with their Russian counterparts. Leaders in Europe, meanwhile, were irritated by his initial speeches, in which he accused them of running from their voters, who Vance claimed held anti-immigration and right-leaning views similar to those of Trump's own constituency.

However, the new peace deal closely resembled his stances, and he has been one of the most forceful spokespeople for the agreement in the administration, even as the US has been under fire for accepting a peace framework that mostly resembles Vladimir Putin's maximalist terms.

In social media updates this past weekend, Vance argued that a ceasefire agreement would have to produce a ceasefire that honored Ukrainian independence, be agreeable to each party, and prevent the conflict from resuming.

“Peace will not be made by failed diplomats or officials living in a fantasy land,” he continued. “An agreement could be made by intelligent people operating in the actual situation.”

It was Vance who followed up on the introduction of the ceasefire proposal in a conversation with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had mainly instructed his team with obtaining a agreement on the peace deal before Thanksgiving this Thursday in the United States.

The Secretary of State's Reaction and Private Doubts

That was a notably more full-throated endorsement of the plan than that given by the secretary of state and national security adviser, Marco Rubio, a more conventional hawk in the administration who has transitioned from a shaky position inside the administration to more firm footing.

Rubio was part of a US delegation that traveled to Geneva this past weekend to confer with Ukrainian officials to help refine the original 28-point peace plan in order to make it more acceptable to authorities in Kyiv.

But, his first response to the deal was lukewarm:

“Ending a complicated and violent conflict such as the one in Ukraine demands an thorough discussion of serious and realistic ideas,” Rubio stated over the weekend. “Furthermore, securing a durable ceasefire will require both sides to agree to difficult but necessary concessions. That is why we are and will continue to create a set of potential solutions for resolving this conflict based on input from each party of this war.”

Behind closed doors, he was reportedly much more doubtful of the plan. The GOP lawmaker Mike Rounds said recently at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had contacted lawmakers to clarify that the agreement was merely a initial offer from the Russians and not an initiative advocated by the White House.

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

Rubio moved quickly to fall in line. “This ceasefire plan was written by the US,” he later stated. “It is presented as a solid structure for continuing negotiations. The proposal is based on input from the Russian side. But, it is additionally based on earlier and ongoing contributions from Ukraine.”