🔗 Share this article

The US Army Secretary, Daniel Driscoll, emerged as an unlikely diplomat for the Trump administration latest proposal to resolve the Russian invasion in Ukraine. Driscoll's close connection with Vice President Vance has positioned a close associate of the Eurosceptic VP at the center of President Trump's latest push to settle the war.

Prior to his last week's trip to Kyiv, Driscoll was unrecognized as a mediator or diplomat, and his early efforts to sell the agreement to officials in Europe were labeled chaotic.

Driscoll's close relationship with Vance, with whom he attended Yale and maintains a personal bond, signal the rising influence of the isolationist VP in negotiations to resolve the Ukraine war.

The VP's Involvement in Peace Efforts

It was Vance who intervened during Ukraine's president's rocky initial visit to the White House in March and insisted he show Trump more courtesy. Currently, Ukraine is once again resisting demands from the US to accept a quick settlement that local officials have described as a capitulation.

After a tumultuous initial year in office, international actions in the White House are said to be shaped by a small group of Trump's key aides, including chief of staff Susie Wiles, conservative adviser Stephen Miller, diplomat Steve Witkoff, State Department head Marco Rubio, and finally Vance.

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

“Every criticism of the peace framework the White House is working on either misunderstands the framework or misstates some key situation on the ground,” Vance stated.

Initial Efforts and European Responses

Vance's initial attempts at negotiating a peace deal with Russia, while also attempting to renew relations with Moscow, were fruitless and left his camp feeling disappointed with their Russian interlocutors. European officials, in turn, were angered by his initial speeches, in which he accused them of running from their constituents, who Vance claimed held restrictionist and conservative views close to those of Trump's own constituency.

However, the new peace deal mirrored his positions, and he has been one of the most forceful advocates for the deal in the administration, even as the US has been criticized for accepting a ceasefire plan that mostly resembles Vladimir Putin's maximalist demands.

In social media updates this weekend, Vance asserted that a peace deal would have to establish a ceasefire that honored Ukrainian sovereignty, be acceptable to both sides, and prevent the war from resuming.

“Peace won’t be made by failed negotiators or politicians living in a dream world,” he added. “It could be made by intelligent people operating in the real world.”

It was Vance who followed up on the presentation of the peace plan in a phone call with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had primarily instructed his team with obtaining a agreement on the peace deal prior to Thanksgiving this Thursday in the United States.

Rubio's Reaction and Internal Concerns

That 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 administration who has transitioned from a shaky position inside the White House to more stable footing.

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

But, his first reaction to the agreement was lukewarm:

“Stopping a complex and deadly war such as the one in Ukraine requires an thorough exchange of serious and pragmatic proposals,” Rubio wrote over the weekend. “And, securing a lasting peace will require both sides to agree to challenging but necessary concessions. This is the reason we are and will continue to develop a list of possible solutions for resolving this conflict drawing from feedback from each party of this conflict.”

Behind closed doors, he was reportedly much more doubtful of the plan. The Republican senator Mike Rounds said recently at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had called lawmakers to clarify that the agreement was just a initial offer from the Russians and not an initiative pushed by the administration.

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

Rubio moved quickly to fall in line. “The peace proposal was written by the US,” he subsequently stated. “It is offered as a strong structure for continuing discussions. The proposal is based on feedback from the Moscow. However, it is also based on earlier and ongoing input from Ukraine.”