🔗 Share this article

America's Secretary of the Army, Daniel Driscoll, was an surprising diplomat for the Trump administration newest proposal to resolve the Russian invasion in Ukraine. His close connection with JD Vance has positioned a key ally of the Eurosceptic VP at the center of Donald Trump latest push to settle the war.

Before his last week's visit to Kyiv, Driscoll was unrecognized as a negotiator or statesman, and his initial attempts to promote the agreement to officials in Europe were described as chaotic.

Driscoll's strong relationship with Vance, with whom he attended Yale and shares a personal bond, signal the resurgence of the non-interventionist vice-president in talks to end the Ukraine war.

The VP's Role in Peace Efforts

It was Vance who intervened during Ukraine's president's rocky initial trip to the Trump White House in March and demanded he show Trump more respect. Now, Ukraine is again resisting demands from the US to agree to a swift deal that local officials have described as a surrender.

After a chaotic initial year in power, foreign policy actions in the White House are said to be influenced by a handful of Trump's key advisers, including chief of staff Susie Wiles, conservative advisor Stephen Miller, diplomat Steve Witkoff, secretary of state Marco Rubio, and of course Vance.

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

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

Initial Efforts and European Responses

Vance's initial efforts at hammering out a ceasefire agreement with Russia, while also attempting to renew relations with Moscow, were unsuccessful and left his camp feeling frustrated with their Russian counterparts. Leaders in Europe, meanwhile, were irritated by his initial speeches, in which he accused them of running from their voters, who Vance claimed held anti-immigration and right-leaning positions close to those of Trump's own supporters.

But, the new peace deal closely resembled his stances, and he has been one of the most forceful advocates for the deal in the administration, even as the US has been under fire for accepting a peace framework that mostly resembles Vladimir Putin's maximalist demands.

In posts this past weekend, Vance argued that a ceasefire agreement would have to produce a ceasefire that honored Ukrainian independence, be agreeable to both sides, and stop the conflict from restarting.

“A ceasefire won’t be made by unsuccessful diplomats or officials residing in a dream world,” he continued. “It might be made by smart people living in the actual situation.”

Additionally, it was Vance who continued on the introduction of the ceasefire proposal in a phone call 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 Reaction and Private Concerns

That was a distinctly 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 government who has gone from a shaky position inside the White House to more stable footing.

Rubio was a member of a US team that traveled to Geneva this past weekend to meet with Ukrainian leaders to help refine the original 28-point ceasefire proposal in order to make it more palatable to authorities in Kyiv.

But, his first reaction to the agreement was tepid:

“Stopping a complex and violent conflict such as the one in Ukraine demands an thorough exchange of substantive and pragmatic ideas,” Rubio wrote over the weekend. “And, achieving a lasting peace will necessitate both sides to agree to challenging but essential compromises. That is why we are and will continue to develop a list of possible ideas for ending this conflict based on feedback from both sides of this war.”

In private, he was reportedly much more doubtful of the proposal. The GOP lawmaker Mike Rounds said last week at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had contacted lawmakers to clarify that the agreement was just a initial proposal from the Russians and not an plan pushed by the White House.

“The Secretary did make a phone call to us this afternoon and I believe he emphasized to us that we are the recipients of a proposal that was delivered to one of our representatives,” stated Rounds. “It is not our recommendation, it is not our ceasefire proposal.”

Rubio moved quickly to fall in line. “This ceasefire plan was written by the US,” he subsequently wrote. “It is presented as a solid structure for continuing negotiations. It is based on input from the Russian side. But, it is also based on earlier and current contributions from Ukraine.”