🔗 Share this article

The US Secretary of the Army, Daniel Driscoll, emerged as an unlikely envoy for the White House's newest proposal to resolve the conflict in Ukraine. His close connection with Vice President Vance has placed a close associate of the Eurosceptic vice-president at the center of President Trump's recent effort to conclude the conflict.

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

Driscoll's strong ties with Vance, who he attended Yale and shares a close friendship, indicate the rising influence of the non-interventionist vice-president in negotiations to resolve the Ukraine crisis.

The VP's Involvement in Peace Efforts

This was Vance who intervened during Ukraine's president's disastrous first visit to the Trump White House in March and insisted he show Trump more respect. Now, Ukraine is once again resisting pressure from the US to accept a quick deal that Ukrainian leaders have described as a surrender.

After a chaotic first year in office, international actions in the White House are said to be influenced by a small group of Trump's key advisers, including top aide Susie Wiles, conservative adviser Stephen Miller, envoy Steve Witkoff, State Department head Marco Rubio, and finally Vance.

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

“All criticism of the ceasefire plan the White House is developing either misinterprets the framework or misstates some critical reality on the ground,” Vance stated.

Early Attempts and EU Responses

Vance's initial attempts at hammering out a peace deal with Russia, while simultaneously attempting to renew relations with Moscow, were fruitless and left his team feeling disappointed with their Russian counterparts. Leaders in Europe, meanwhile, were irritated by his early speeches, in which he charged them of ignoring their voters, who Vance said held anti-immigration and conservative views similar to those of Trump's own constituency.

But, the recently published ceasefire proposal mirrored 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 endorsing a ceasefire plan that mostly resembles Vladimir Putin's extreme demands.

In posts this past weekend, Vance asserted that a ceasefire agreement would have to establish a truce that honored Ukrainian sovereignty, be acceptable to each party, and prevent the conflict from resuming.

“A ceasefire will not be made by failed diplomats or officials living in a dream world,” he added. “An agreement could be made by smart people operating in the actual situation.”

Additionally, it was Vance who followed up on the presentation of the ceasefire proposal in a conversation with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had primarily tasked his team with obtaining a agreement on the ceasefire accord prior to Thanksgiving this Thursday in the United States.

Rubio's Reaction and Internal Concerns

Vance's stance was a distinctly more enthusiastic endorsement of the plan than that given by the top diplomat and national security adviser, Marco Rubio, a more conventional hawk in the administration who has gone from a uncertain stature inside the administration to more firm footing.

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

However, his first response to the agreement was lukewarm:

“Ending a complex and deadly conflict such as the one in Ukraine demands an thorough exchange of substantive and realistic ideas,” Rubio wrote over the weekend. “And, achieving a durable peace will necessitate each party to consent to difficult but essential concessions. This is the reason we are and will persist to create a list of possible ideas for ending this conflict based on feedback from each party of this conflict.”

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

“The Secretary did make a call to us this afternoon and I think he emphasized to us that we are the receivers of a offer that was presented to one of our officials,” stated Rounds. “The document is not our recommendation, 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 framework for ongoing negotiations. The proposal is based on feedback from the Moscow. But, it is additionally informed by earlier and current input from Ukraine.”