🔗 Share this article

America's Secretary of the Army, Daniel Driscoll, emerged as an surprising envoy for the White House's latest initiative to end the conflict in Ukraine. His close connection with Vice President Vance has placed a key ally of the Eurosceptic VP at the center of President Trump's latest effort to conclude the war.

Before his recent visit to Kyiv, Driscoll was not known as a negotiator or diplomat, and his early attempts to promote the deal to European policymakers were described as chaotic.

His close relationship with Vance, who he studied and maintains a personal bond, indicate the resurgence of the non-interventionist vice-president in talks to resolve the Ukraine war.

Vance's Involvement in Peace Negotiations

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

Following a tumultuous first year in office, international actions in the White House are reportedly influenced by a handful of Trump's key aides, including chief of staff Susie Wiles, rightwing advisor Stephen Miller, envoy Steve Witkoff, State Department head Marco Rubio, and of course Vance.

Vance has been a vocal advocate of the latest 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 peace framework the White House is developing either misinterprets the proposal or misstates some key situation on the ground,” Vance stated.

Initial Attempts and EU Reactions

Vance's early attempts at hammering out a ceasefire agreement with Russia, while simultaneously seeking to restore ties with Moscow, were unsuccessful and left his camp feeling frustrated with their Russian counterparts. European officials, in turn, were irritated by his early speeches, in which he charged them of running from their voters, who Vance claimed held anti-immigration and right-leaning views similar to those of Trump's own constituency.

But, the new peace deal mirrored his positions, 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 ceasefire plan that mostly resembles Vladimir Putin's extreme demands.

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

“Peace won’t be made by unsuccessful negotiators or politicians residing in a dream world,” he added. “It might be made by intelligent people living in the real world.”

Additionally, it was Vance who continued on the introduction of the peace plan in a conversation with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had primarily instructed his staff with obtaining a agreement on the peace deal prior to Thanksgiving this week in the United States.

Rubio's Response and Internal Doubts

That was a distinctly more full-throated endorsement of the plan than that given by the secretary of state and national security adviser, Marco Rubio, a more conventional hardliner in the administration who has gone from a uncertain position inside the White House to more stable standing.

Rubio was a member of a US delegation that went to Geneva this weekend to meet with Ukrainian officials to help refine the initial 28-point ceasefire proposal in order to make it more palatable to authorities in Kyiv.

However, his initial reaction to the deal was lukewarm:

“Ending a complex and deadly conflict such as the one in Ukraine requires an thorough discussion of substantive and realistic ideas,” Rubio wrote over the weekend. “And, securing a durable ceasefire will require both sides to agree to difficult but necessary concessions. This is the reason we are and will continue to create a list of potential ideas for resolving this conflict drawing from feedback from both sides of this conflict.”

In private, he was reportedly 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 offer from the Russians and not an plan advocated by the administration.

“Rubio did make a phone call to us this day and I think he emphasized to us that we are the receivers of a offer that was delivered to one of our officials,” stated Rounds. “It is not our suggestion, it is not our peace plan.”

Rubio acted swiftly to fall in line. “This ceasefire plan was written by the US,” he later wrote. “It is presented as a solid framework for ongoing discussions. The proposal is based on input from the Russian side. However, it is also informed by previous and ongoing contributions from Ukraine.”