🔗 Share this article

The US Secretary of the Army, Dan Driscoll, was an unlikely envoy for the White House's latest proposal to end the conflict in Ukraine. His strong relationship with Vice President Vance has positioned a close associate of the Euroskeptic vice-president at the center of President Trump's recent push to settle the war.

Prior to his recent visit to Kyiv, Driscoll was not known as a negotiator or diplomat, and his initial attempts to sell the agreement to European policymakers were described as turbulent.

Driscoll's strong relationship with Vance, who he attended Yale and maintains a close friendship, signal the rising influence of the non-interventionist vice-president in negotiations to end the Ukraine war.

The VP's Role in Ceasefire Negotiations

This was Vance who stepped in during Volodymyr Zelenskyy rocky first trip to the White House in March and demanded he show Trump more courtesy. Currently, Ukraine is again resisting pressure from the US to accept a swift settlement that local officials have called a surrender.

After a chaotic initial year in office, foreign policy decisions in the White House are reportedly influenced by a small group of Trump's key advisers, including top aide Susie Wiles, rightwing adviser 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 developed by Witkoff and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, alongside the Russian diplomat Kirill Dmitriev.

“Every objection of the peace framework the White House is developing either misinterprets the framework or misstates some key reality on the ground,” the VP stated.

Initial Attempts and EU Responses

Vance's initial efforts at negotiating a peace deal with Russia, while also seeking to restore relations with Moscow, were unsuccessful and left his camp feeling frustrated with their Russian interlocutors. Leaders in Europe, meanwhile, were angered by his early remarks, in which he accused them of running from their voters, who Vance said held anti-immigration and right-leaning views close to those of Trump's own constituency.

However, the new ceasefire proposal mirrored his positions, and he has been one of the most forceful spokespeople for the agreement 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 asserted that a peace deal would have to produce a ceasefire that respected Ukrainian sovereignty, be agreeable to both sides, and stop the conflict from restarting.

“Peace will not be made by unsuccessful diplomats or politicians living in a dream world,” he continued. “It could be made by smart people operating in the actual situation.”

It was Vance who continued on the presentation of the ceasefire proposal in a phone call with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had mainly instructed his team with obtaining a signature on the ceasefire accord prior to Thanksgiving this Thursday in the United States.

The Secretary of State's Response and Private Doubts

Vance's stance was a distinctly more full-throated support 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 transitioned from a shaky position inside the administration to more firm standing.

Rubio was part of a US team that traveled to Geneva this past weekend to confer with Ukrainian leaders to help refine the original 28-point peace plan in order to make it more acceptable to leaders in Kyiv.

But, his first reaction to the deal was tepid:

“Stopping a complicated and deadly war such as the one in Ukraine demands an extensive exchange of serious and pragmatic ideas,” Rubio wrote recently. “Furthermore, achieving a lasting peace will require both sides to agree to challenging but necessary compromises. That is why we are and will persist to develop a set of possible solutions for ending this war drawing from input from each party of this conflict.”

Behind closed doors, he was said to be 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 initiative advocated by the administration.

“Rubio made a phone call to us this afternoon and I think he emphasized to us that we are the recipients of a offer that was delivered to one of our officials,” stated Rounds. “It is not our recommendation, it is not our ceasefire proposal.”

Rubio acted swiftly to fall in line. “This ceasefire plan was written by the US,” he later stated. “The framework is offered as a solid framework for continuing discussions. The proposal is derived from input from the Russian side. However, it is additionally informed by earlier and ongoing contributions from Ukraine.”