🔗 Share this article

America's Army Secretary, Daniel Driscoll, was an unlikely diplomat for the Trump administration latest initiative to end the Russian invasion in Ukraine. Driscoll's close relationship with Vice President Vance has positioned a key ally of the Euroskeptic VP at the forefront of Donald Trump latest effort to conclude the war.

Prior to his recent trip to Kyiv, Driscoll was unrecognized as a negotiator or diplomat, and his initial attempts to promote the agreement to officials in Europe were described as turbulent.

Driscoll's strong relationship with Vance, who he attended Yale and maintains a close friendship, signal the resurgence of the isolationist vice-president in talks to end the Ukraine war.

The VP's Involvement in Peace Negotiations

It was Vance who stepped in during Ukraine's president's disastrous initial trip to the Trump White House in March and demanded he show Trump more respect. Currently, Ukraine is once again resisting demands from the US to accept a swift settlement that Ukrainian leaders have called a capitulation.

After a tumultuous first year in power, foreign policy actions in the White House are said to be influenced by a handful of Trump's top aides, including chief of staff Susie Wiles, conservative advisor Stephen Miller, diplomat Steve Witkoff, State Department head Marco Rubio, and of course Vance.

Vance has been a vocal supporter of the latest plan, which was developed by Witkoff and Trump's relative Jared Kushner, together with the Russian diplomat Kirill Dmitriev.

“All criticism of the peace framework the White House is developing either misunderstands the proposal or misrepresents some critical reality on the ground,” Vance wrote.

Early Efforts and European Reactions

Vance's early efforts at hammering out a ceasefire agreement with Russia, while also seeking to restore ties with Moscow, were fruitless and left his team feeling disappointed with their Russian interlocutors. European officials, meanwhile, were irritated by his initial speeches, in which he charged them of running from their constituents, who Vance said held restrictionist and conservative views close to those of Trump's own constituency.

But, the recently published ceasefire proposal closely resembled his positions, and he has been one of the most assertive spokespeople for the deal in the administration, even as the US has been criticized for accepting a ceasefire plan that largely resembles Vladimir Putin's maximalist demands.

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

“Peace will not be made by failed diplomats or officials residing in a fantasy land,” he added. “An agreement might be made by smart people operating in the real world.”

Additionally, it was Vance who continued on the introduction of the ceasefire proposal in a phone call with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had primarily tasked his team with obtaining a agreement on the peace deal prior to Thanksgiving this week in the United States.

Rubio's Reaction and Private Doubts

Vance's stance was a notably more enthusiastic support of the proposal than that expressed by the top diplomat and security advisor, Marco Rubio, a more conventional hardliner in the government who has transitioned from a shaky position inside the administration to more firm standing.

Rubio was a member of a US delegation that went to Geneva this past weekend to confer with Ukrainian leaders to help moderate the original 28-point peace plan in order to make it more acceptable to leaders in Kyiv.

But, his initial response to the deal was lukewarm:

“Ending a complex and deadly conflict such as the one in Ukraine requires an extensive exchange of serious and pragmatic proposals,” Rubio stated over the weekend. “Furthermore, securing a lasting peace will require each party to consent to challenging but essential compromises. This is the reason we are and will persist to develop a set of potential ideas for ending this war drawing from feedback from both sides of this war.”

In private, he was reportedly much more doubtful of the plan. The Republican senator Mike Rounds stated recently at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had contacted lawmakers to explain that the deal was merely a initial proposal from the Russians and not an plan advocated by the administration.

“The Secretary did make a phone call to us this day and I believe he emphasized to us that we are the recipients of a proposal that was delivered to one of our representatives,” said Rounds. “The document is not our suggestion, it is not our peace plan.”

Rubio moved quickly to align himself. “This ceasefire plan was authored by the US,” he later stated. “It is offered as a strong framework for continuing discussions. It is based on feedback from the Moscow. But, it is additionally based on earlier and current contributions from Ukraine.”