🔗 Share this article

America's Army Secretary, Dan Driscoll, was an unlikely envoy for the Trump administration newest initiative to end the conflict in Ukraine. His close relationship with JD Vance has positioned a close associate of the Eurosceptic vice-president at the center of Donald Trump latest push to conclude the war.

Before his last week's trip to Kyiv, Driscoll was unrecognized as a mediator or diplomat, and his early attempts to sell the deal to officials in Europe were described as chaotic.

His strong relationship with Vance, who he studied and shares a personal bond, signal the resurgence of the non-interventionist vice-president in talks to resolve the Ukraine crisis.

The VP's Role in Peace Efforts

This was Vance who intervened during Ukraine's president's disastrous first trip 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 agree to a swift deal that local officials have called a capitulation.

Following a chaotic initial year in power, international actions in the White House are said to be influenced by a handful of Trump's key advisers, including 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 plan, which was crafted by Witkoff and Trump's relative Jared Kushner, together with the Russian diplomat Kirill Dmitriev.

“All objection of the peace framework the administration is developing either misinterprets the proposal or misrepresents some critical reality on the ground,” Vance wrote.

Early Efforts and European Reactions

Vance's initial attempts at negotiating a peace deal with Russia, while simultaneously seeking to renew ties with Moscow, were fruitless and left his camp feeling frustrated with their Russian interlocutors. Leaders in Europe, in turn, were angered by his early speeches, in which he accused them of running from their voters, who Vance said held anti-immigration and right-leaning views similar to those of Trump's own constituency.

However, the new peace deal mirrored his stances, and he has been one of the most forceful advocates for the agreement in the administration, even as the US has been under fire for accepting a ceasefire plan that largely resembles Vladimir Putin's extreme terms.

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

“A ceasefire will not be made by unsuccessful negotiators or politicians living in a fantasy land,” he added. “It might be made by intelligent people living in the actual situation.”

Additionally, it was Vance who followed up on the presentation of the peace plan in a conversation with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had mainly tasked his staff with securing a agreement on the peace deal before Thanksgiving this week in the United States.

Rubio's Response and Private Concerns

Vance's stance was a notably more enthusiastic endorsement of the proposal than that expressed by the secretary of state and national security adviser, Marco Rubio, a more conventional hardliner in the government who has gone from a shaky stature inside the White House to more firm footing.

Rubio was a member of a US delegation that traveled 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 first reaction to the deal was lukewarm:

“Stopping a complicated and deadly conflict such as the one in Ukraine requires an extensive exchange of substantive and realistic ideas,” Rubio wrote over the weekend. “Furthermore, achieving a durable peace will necessitate both sides to consent to difficult but essential concessions. That is why we are and will continue to develop a list of potential ideas for resolving this war drawing from input from both sides of this war.”

Behind closed doors, he was reportedly much more skeptical of the proposal. The Republican senator Mike Rounds said last week at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had called lawmakers to clarify that the deal was just a initial offer from the Russians and not an initiative pushed by the White House.

“Rubio did make a phone call to us this day and I believe he emphasized to us that we are the receivers of a offer that was delivered to one of our officials,” said Rounds. “The document is not our recommendation, it is not our ceasefire proposal.”

Rubio moved quickly to align himself. “The peace proposal was written by the US,” he subsequently stated. “It is presented as a strong framework for ongoing discussions. The proposal is derived from feedback from the Moscow. But, it is also based on earlier and current contributions from Ukraine.”