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America's Secretary of the Army, Dan Driscoll, was an unlikely envoy for the White House's latest initiative to end the Russian invasion in Ukraine. Driscoll's close connection with JD Vance has positioned a key ally of the Eurosceptic VP at the forefront of President Trump's latest effort to settle the war.

Prior to his recent trip to Kyiv, Driscoll was unrecognized as a negotiator or statesman, and his early attempts to sell the agreement to officials in Europe were described as chaotic.

Driscoll's strong ties with Vance, who he studied and maintains a close friendship, signal the rising influence of the isolationist vice-president in negotiations to end the Ukraine crisis.

The VP's Role in Peace Negotiations

It was Vance who stepped in during Ukraine's president's rocky initial visit to the Trump White House in March and demanded he show Trump more respect. Currently, Ukraine is once again pushing back against pressure from the US to accept a swift deal that Ukrainian leaders have described as a capitulation.

After a chaotic initial year in office, international actions in the White House are reportedly shaped by a handful of Trump's key aides, such as top aide Susie Wiles, conservative advisor Stephen Miller, diplomat Steve Witkoff, secretary of state Marco Rubio, and of course Vance.

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

“Every criticism of the peace framework the White House is developing either misinterprets the framework or misrepresents some key situation on the ground,” Vance wrote.

Early Attempts and European Responses

Vance's early attempts at hammering out a ceasefire agreement with Russia, while also seeking to renew relations with Moscow, were unsuccessful and left his camp feeling disappointed with their Russian counterparts. Leaders in Europe, meanwhile, were irritated by his initial speeches, in which he charged them of ignoring their constituents, who Vance claimed held restrictionist and conservative positions similar to those of Trump's own supporters.

But, the new ceasefire proposal closely resembled his stances, and he has been one of the most assertive advocates for the deal in the administration, even as the US has been criticized for accepting a ceasefire plan that mostly echoes Vladimir Putin's extreme terms.

In social media updates this past weekend, Vance argued that a ceasefire agreement would have to establish a truce that respected Ukrainian independence, be agreeable to each party, and stop the conflict from resuming.

“A ceasefire will not be made by failed negotiators or officials residing in a fantasy land,” he continued. “An agreement could be made by smart people operating in the real world.”

It was Vance who followed up on the introduction of the ceasefire proposal in a conversation with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had mainly instructed his team with obtaining a agreement on the ceasefire accord prior to Thanksgiving this Thursday in the United States.

The Secretary of State's Response and Internal Concerns

That was a distinctly more full-throated endorsement of the plan than that expressed by the secretary of state and security advisor, Marco Rubio, a more conventional hardliner in the administration who has transitioned from a uncertain stature inside the White House to more stable footing.

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

However, his first reaction to the agreement was tepid:

“Ending a complex and deadly war such as the one in Ukraine demands an thorough discussion of serious and pragmatic ideas,” Rubio wrote over the weekend. “Furthermore, achieving a durable peace will require both sides to consent to difficult but essential concessions. This is the reason we are and will persist to develop a list of possible ideas for ending this war based on feedback from each party of this conflict.”

In private, he was reportedly much more skeptical of the plan. The Republican senator Mike Rounds stated last week at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had called lawmakers to clarify that the deal was merely a initial offer from the Russians and not an initiative advocated by the White House.

“The Secretary made a call to us this day and I think he made it very clear to us that we are the receivers of a proposal 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 structure for continuing discussions. The proposal is derived from input from the Moscow. But, it is additionally informed by earlier and ongoing input from Ukraine.”