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America's Secretary of the Army, Dan Driscoll, emerged as an unlikely envoy for the White House's latest initiative to end the Russian invasion in Ukraine. Driscoll's strong relationship with JD Vance has placed a close associate of the Euroskeptic VP at the forefront of President Trump's recent effort to settle the conflict.

Prior to his recent visit to Kyiv, Driscoll was unrecognized as a negotiator or diplomat, and his early efforts to sell the agreement to European policymakers were described as chaotic.

His close ties with Vance, who he studied and shares a personal bond, indicate the resurgence of the isolationist VP in negotiations to resolve the Ukraine war.

The VP's Role in Ceasefire Efforts

It was Vance who intervened during Ukraine's president's disastrous initial visit to the White House in March and demanded he show Trump more respect. Now, Ukraine is once again pushing back against pressure from the US to accept a swift deal that Ukrainian leaders have called a surrender.

Following a tumultuous initial year in power, international decisions in the White House are said to be shaped by a handful of Trump's key advisers, including chief of staff Susie Wiles, rightwing advisor Stephen Miller, envoy Steve Witkoff, State Department head Marco Rubio, and finally Vance.

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

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

Early Attempts and European Reactions

Vance's early efforts at negotiating a peace deal with Russia, while simultaneously attempting to restore relations with Moscow, were fruitless and left his team feeling disappointed with their Russian counterparts. European officials, in turn, were angered by his initial speeches, in which he accused them of ignoring their voters, who Vance said held restrictionist and right-leaning views similar to those of Trump's own constituency.

But, the recently published peace deal closely resembled his stances, and he has been one of the most assertive advocates for the agreement in the administration, even as the US has been criticized for endorsing a ceasefire plan that mostly resembles Vladimir Putin's maximalist terms.

In social media updates this past weekend, Vance argued that a ceasefire agreement would have to establish a truce that honored Ukrainian independence, be agreeable to both sides, and stop the war from restarting.

“A ceasefire won’t be made by unsuccessful diplomats or politicians residing in a fantasy land,” he continued. “An agreement might be made by intelligent people living in the real world.”

Additionally, it was Vance who followed up on the presentation of the ceasefire proposal in a phone call with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had mainly instructed his staff with obtaining a signature on the ceasefire accord prior to Thanksgiving this Thursday in the United States.

The Secretary of State's Reaction and Internal Doubts

That 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 hawk in the government who has transitioned from a shaky position inside the White House to more stable standing.

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

But, his first reaction to the agreement was tepid:

“Ending a complex and violent war such as the one in Ukraine demands an thorough exchange of substantive and realistic ideas,” Rubio wrote over the weekend. “Furthermore, securing a lasting peace will necessitate both sides to consent to difficult but necessary compromises. That is why we are and will continue to create a list of possible ideas for resolving this conflict based on input from each party of this war.”

Behind closed doors, he was reportedly much more skeptical of the plan. The Republican senator Mike Rounds stated recently at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had called lawmakers to explain that the deal was merely a preliminary offer from the Russians and not an initiative pushed by the White House.

“The Secretary made a phone call to us this afternoon and I think he emphasized to us that we are the recipients of a proposal that was delivered to one of our representatives,” stated Rounds. “The document is not our suggestion, it is not our ceasefire proposal.”

Rubio acted swiftly to align himself. “The peace proposal was authored by the US,” he subsequently stated. “It is offered as a strong structure for ongoing negotiations. It is derived from input from the Russian side. But, it is additionally informed by previous and current contributions from Ukraine.”