🔗 Share this article

The US Army Secretary, Daniel Driscoll, emerged as an surprising diplomat for the Trump administration newest proposal to resolve the Russian invasion in Ukraine. His strong connection with JD Vance has placed a key ally of the Euroskeptic VP at the center of President Trump's latest effort to conclude the conflict.

Before his recent visit to Kyiv, Driscoll was not known as a mediator or statesman, and his initial efforts to promote the agreement to officials in Europe were labeled turbulent.

His strong relationship with Vance, with whom he attended Yale and shares a personal bond, signal the rising influence of the isolationist VP in negotiations to end the Ukraine war.

Vance's Role in Ceasefire Efforts

It was Vance who intervened during Ukraine's president's disastrous initial trip to the White House in March and insisted he show Trump more courtesy. Now, Ukraine is again pushing back against pressure from the US to accept a quick deal that local officials have called a surrender.

After a tumultuous first year in office, international decisions in the White House are reportedly shaped by a handful of Trump's key advisers, such as top aide Susie Wiles, rightwing adviser Stephen Miller, diplomat Steve Witkoff, secretary of state Marco Rubio, and of course Vance.

Vance has been a outspoken advocate of the latest plan, which was crafted by Witkoff and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, together with the Kremlin envoy Kirill Dmitriev.

“Every criticism of the peace framework the administration is developing either misinterprets the proposal or misrepresents some critical situation on the ground,” Vance stated.

Initial Attempts and European Reactions

Vance's initial efforts at hammering out a peace deal with Russia, while also attempting to renew relations with Moscow, were unsuccessful and left his camp feeling disappointed with their Russian counterparts. European officials, meanwhile, were angered by his early speeches, in which he charged them of running from their voters, who Vance claimed held anti-immigration and conservative views close to those of Trump's own constituency.

But, the recently published peace deal mirrored his positions, and he has been one of the most assertive advocates 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 demands.

In posts this past weekend, Vance asserted that a peace deal would have to establish a truce that honored Ukrainian sovereignty, be agreeable to both sides, and stop the conflict from restarting.

“Peace will not be made by failed negotiators or politicians residing in a dream world,” he continued. “It could be made by smart people living 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 tasked his team with obtaining a agreement on the peace deal prior to Thanksgiving this week in the United States.

Rubio's Response and Private Concerns

Vance's stance was a distinctly more enthusiastic support of the proposal than that expressed by the top diplomat and national security adviser, Marco Rubio, a more traditional hardliner in the government who has transitioned from a shaky stature inside the administration 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 original 28-point peace plan in order to make it more acceptable to authorities in Kyiv.

But, his initial reaction to the deal was tepid:

“Stopping a complex and violent war such as the one in Ukraine requires an thorough discussion of serious and realistic ideas,” Rubio wrote over the weekend. “Furthermore, securing a lasting ceasefire will necessitate both sides to agree to difficult but essential compromises. This is the reason we are and will persist to develop a list of possible solutions for ending this conflict based on input from both sides of this war.”

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

“Rubio did make a phone call to us this day and I believe he made it very clear to us that we are the receivers of a offer that was presented 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 later stated. “It is offered as a strong framework for ongoing negotiations. It is based on feedback from the Russian side. But, it is also informed by previous and ongoing input from Ukraine.”