🔗 Share this article

The US Army Secretary, Daniel Driscoll, was an surprising envoy for the Trump administration newest proposal to resolve the Russian invasion in Ukraine. Driscoll's close connection with Vice President Vance has positioned a key ally of the Euroskeptic VP at the center of Donald Trump latest effort to conclude the conflict.

Prior to his recent visit to Kyiv, Driscoll was not known as a negotiator or diplomat, and his early attempts to promote the agreement to officials in Europe were described as turbulent.

Driscoll's strong relationship with Vance, with whom he studied and maintains a personal bond, indicate the rising influence of the non-interventionist VP in negotiations to end the Ukraine war.

Vance's Role in Ceasefire Efforts

It was Vance who intervened during Ukraine's president's disastrous initial visit to the Trump White House in March and demanded he show Trump more courtesy. Now, Ukraine is once again pushing back against pressure from the US to agree to a quick deal that local officials have called a capitulation.

Following a tumultuous first year in office, foreign policy actions in the White House are said to be shaped by a small group of Trump's key advisers, including top aide Susie Wiles, rightwing adviser Stephen Miller, diplomat Steve Witkoff, State Department head Marco Rubio, and of course Vance.

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

Early Efforts and EU Responses

Vance's initial attempts at negotiating a ceasefire agreement with Russia, while simultaneously attempting to renew ties with Moscow, were unsuccessful and left his camp feeling disappointed with their Russian counterparts. Leaders in Europe, in turn, were irritated by his initial speeches, in which he accused them of ignoring their constituents, who Vance claimed held restrictionist and conservative views close to those of Trump's own supporters.

But, the recently published ceasefire proposal closely resembled his positions, and he has been one of the most forceful advocates for the agreement in the government, even as the US has been criticized for accepting a ceasefire plan that mostly echoes Vladimir Putin's extreme demands.

In social media updates this past weekend, Vance argued that a peace deal would have to produce a truce that honored Ukrainian sovereignty, be acceptable to each party, and stop the war from restarting.

“A ceasefire will not be made by unsuccessful diplomats or officials residing in a fantasy land,” he added. “It could be made by intelligent people living in the actual situation.”

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

Rubio's Response and Internal Concerns

That was a distinctly more enthusiastic endorsement of the plan than that given by the top diplomat and national security adviser, Marco Rubio, a more traditional hardliner in the government who has gone from a shaky stature inside the administration to more stable footing.

Rubio was part of a US delegation that traveled to Geneva this past weekend to meet with Ukrainian officials to help moderate the initial 28-point peace plan in order to make it more palatable to leaders in Kyiv.

But, his first reaction to the agreement was lukewarm:

“Stopping a complex and violent conflict such as the one in Ukraine demands an thorough discussion of serious and pragmatic proposals,” Rubio wrote over the weekend. “And, securing a lasting ceasefire will require each party to consent to challenging but necessary concessions. That is why we are and will persist to develop a list of potential ideas for ending this war based on input from both sides of this conflict.”

In private, he was said to be much more doubtful of the plan. The Republican senator Mike Rounds said recently at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had called lawmakers to clarify that the agreement was merely a initial proposal from the Russians and not an plan advocated by the White House.

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

Rubio acted swiftly to fall in line. “The peace proposal was authored by the US,” he subsequently wrote. “It is offered as a solid framework for continuing discussions. It is derived from feedback from the Moscow. However, it is also informed by previous and ongoing contributions from Ukraine.”