🔗 Share this article

America's Secretary of the Army, Dan Driscoll, was an unlikely envoy for the Trump administration newest initiative to end the Russian invasion in Ukraine. Driscoll's close relationship with JD Vance has positioned a key ally of the Euroskeptic vice-president at the forefront of President Trump's recent push to settle the war.

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

Driscoll's strong ties with Vance, with whom he attended Yale and shares a personal bond, indicate the resurgence of the isolationist vice-president in talks to resolve the Ukraine crisis.

The VP's Involvement in Peace Efforts

This was Vance who intervened during Ukraine's president's rocky first trip to the Trump White House in March and insisted he show Trump more courtesy. Currently, Ukraine is once again pushing back against pressure from the US to agree to a quick settlement that Ukrainian leaders have called a capitulation.

After a tumultuous initial year in office, foreign policy decisions in the White House are reportedly influenced by a small group of Trump's key advisers, such as top aide Susie Wiles, conservative advisor Stephen Miller, diplomat Steve Witkoff, State Department head Marco Rubio, and finally Vance.

Vance has been a vocal advocate of the recent proposal, which was developed by Witkoff and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, together with the Russian diplomat Kirill Dmitriev.

“Every criticism of the ceasefire plan the administration is developing either misinterprets the proposal or misrepresents some key reality on the ground,” the VP wrote.

Initial Efforts and European Reactions

Vance's early attempts at hammering out a ceasefire agreement with Russia, while also attempting to renew relations with Moscow, were fruitless and left his team feeling frustrated with their Russian interlocutors. Leaders in Europe, in turn, were angered by his early remarks, in which he charged them of running from their constituents, who Vance claimed held restrictionist and conservative positions similar to those of Trump's own constituency.

However, the new peace deal closely resembled 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 endorsing a ceasefire plan that mostly resembles Vladimir Putin's extreme terms.

In posts this past weekend, Vance argued that a peace deal would have to produce a ceasefire that honored Ukrainian sovereignty, be agreeable to both sides, and prevent the conflict from restarting.

“Peace will not be made by failed negotiators or officials living in a fantasy land,” he added. “An agreement might be made by intelligent people living in the actual situation.”

It was Vance who continued on the presentation of the peace plan in a phone call with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had primarily instructed his staff with obtaining a signature on the ceasefire accord before Thanksgiving this week in the United States.

The Secretary of State's Response and Internal Concerns

Vance's stance was a notably more enthusiastic endorsement of the proposal than that given by the secretary of state and national security adviser, Marco Rubio, a more traditional hawk in the administration who has transitioned from a uncertain stature inside the White House to more firm standing.

Rubio was a member of a US delegation that traveled to Geneva this weekend to meet with Ukrainian leaders to help moderate the original 28-point ceasefire proposal in order to make it more acceptable to authorities in Kyiv.

But, his first response to the deal was tepid:

“Ending a complicated and deadly war such as the one in Ukraine demands an thorough discussion of substantive and pragmatic proposals,” Rubio stated recently. “Furthermore, achieving a lasting peace will necessitate both sides to consent to difficult but essential compromises. This is the reason we are and will continue to create a list of possible ideas for resolving this conflict drawing from input from both sides of this conflict.”

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

“Rubio did make a call to us this day and I believe he emphasized to us that we are the recipients of a offer that was presented to one of our officials,” stated Rounds. “It is not our recommendation, it is not our ceasefire proposal.”

Rubio moved quickly to fall in line. “The peace proposal was written by the US,” he later wrote. “The framework is offered as a solid framework for continuing negotiations. The proposal is based on feedback from the Russian side. But, it is also based on previous and ongoing contributions from Ukraine.”