🔗 Share this article

The US Army Secretary, Dan Driscoll, emerged as an surprising diplomat for the White House's latest proposal to resolve the conflict in Ukraine. His strong connection with Vice President Vance has placed a key ally of the Euroskeptic vice-president at the center of Donald Trump latest effort to settle the conflict.

Before his last week's visit to Kyiv, Driscoll was not known as a negotiator or statesman, and his initial attempts to promote the deal to officials in Europe were labeled turbulent.

Driscoll's strong relationship with Vance, with whom he studied and maintains a close friendship, indicate the resurgence of the isolationist vice-president in negotiations to end the Ukraine war.

The VP's Involvement in Ceasefire Efforts

This was Vance who stepped in during Volodymyr Zelenskyy rocky initial trip to the White House in March and demanded he show Trump more respect. Currently, Ukraine is once again resisting demands from the US to agree to a swift settlement that Ukrainian leaders have described as a surrender.

After a chaotic first year in power, foreign policy decisions in the White House are reportedly shaped by a small group of Trump's top aides, such as top aide Susie Wiles, rightwing adviser Stephen Miller, envoy Steve Witkoff, secretary of state Marco Rubio, and finally Vance.

Vance has been a outspoken supporter of the latest proposal, which was crafted by Witkoff and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, alongside the Kremlin envoy Kirill Dmitriev.

“Every objection of the ceasefire plan the White House is working on either misunderstands the framework or misrepresents some key situation on the ground,” Vance wrote.

Initial Attempts and European Responses

Vance's early efforts at hammering out a peace deal with Russia, while also attempting to restore ties with Moscow, were fruitless and left his team feeling frustrated with their Russian counterparts. European officials, meanwhile, were angered by his initial speeches, in which he charged them of running from their voters, who Vance said held restrictionist and conservative positions similar to those of Trump's own supporters.

However, the new peace deal closely resembled his stances, and he has been one of the most assertive advocates for the agreement in the government, even as the US has been under fire for endorsing a ceasefire plan that mostly resembles Vladimir Putin's extreme terms.

In social media updates this weekend, Vance argued that a peace deal would have to establish a truce that honored Ukrainian independence, be agreeable to both sides, and stop the war from resuming.

“A ceasefire won’t be made by unsuccessful negotiators or politicians residing in a dream world,” he continued. “An agreement might be made by intelligent people living in the real world.”

Additionally, it was Vance who continued on the introduction of the ceasefire proposal in a conversation with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had primarily instructed his team with securing a agreement on the ceasefire accord before Thanksgiving this week in the United States.

The Secretary of State's Reaction and Internal Concerns

Vance's stance was a distinctly more full-throated endorsement of the proposal than that expressed by the secretary of state and national security adviser, Marco Rubio, a more conventional hawk 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 past weekend to confer with Ukrainian officials to help refine the original 28-point peace plan in order to make it more acceptable to leaders in Kyiv.

But, his initial reaction to the agreement was lukewarm:

“Stopping a complicated and violent war such as the one in Ukraine requires an extensive exchange of serious and pragmatic ideas,” Rubio stated over the weekend. “And, securing a durable ceasefire will necessitate each party to consent to difficult but necessary concessions. This is the reason we are and will continue to create a set of potential ideas for resolving this war based on input from both sides of this war.”

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

“The Secretary did make a call to us this afternoon and I believe he made it very clear to us that we are the recipients of a offer that was delivered to one of our officials,” said Rounds. “The document is not our suggestion, it is not our peace plan.”

Rubio moved quickly to align himself. “This ceasefire plan was authored by the US,” he subsequently stated. “It is presented as a solid framework for continuing discussions. The proposal is derived from feedback from the Russian side. However, it is also based on earlier and current contributions from Ukraine.”