🔗 Share this article

The US Army Secretary, Daniel Driscoll, was an unlikely diplomat for the Trump administration newest initiative to end the Russian invasion in Ukraine. Driscoll's strong connection with JD Vance has placed a key ally of the Eurosceptic VP at the center of President Trump's recent effort to conclude the conflict.

Before his recent visit to Kyiv, Driscoll was not known as a negotiator or statesman, and his initial attempts to promote the agreement to officials in Europe were described as chaotic.

His strong relationship with Vance, with whom he attended Yale and shares a personal bond, indicate the resurgence of the non-interventionist vice-president in negotiations to end the Ukraine war.

The VP's Role in Ceasefire Negotiations

This was Vance who intervened during Ukraine's president's rocky first trip to the Trump 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 swift settlement that local officials have called a capitulation.

Following a tumultuous initial year in power, foreign policy actions in the White House are reportedly shaped by a small group of Trump's top advisers, including chief of staff Susie Wiles, conservative advisor Stephen Miller, envoy Steve Witkoff, State Department head Marco Rubio, and of course Vance.

Vance has been a vocal advocate of the latest proposal, which was crafted by Witkoff and Trump's relative Jared Kushner, together with the Kremlin envoy Kirill Dmitriev.

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

Early Efforts and European Responses

Vance's initial attempts at hammering out a ceasefire agreement with Russia, while also seeking to renew ties with Moscow, were unsuccessful and left his camp feeling frustrated with their Russian counterparts. Leaders in Europe, in turn, were angered by his early speeches, in which he charged them of ignoring their constituents, who Vance said held restrictionist and conservative views similar to those of Trump's own constituency.

However, the recently published ceasefire proposal mirrored his positions, and he has been one of the most assertive spokespeople for the agreement in the government, even as the US has been criticized for endorsing a ceasefire plan that largely echoes Vladimir Putin's maximalist demands.

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

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

It was Vance who continued on the introduction of the ceasefire proposal in a conversation with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had mainly instructed his staff with securing a signature on the peace deal prior to Thanksgiving this week in the United States.

The Secretary of State's Response and Private Concerns

That was a distinctly more full-throated support of the proposal than that expressed by the secretary of state and security advisor, Marco Rubio, a more conventional hardliner in the government who has gone from a uncertain stature inside the administration to more stable standing.

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

However, his initial response to the agreement was lukewarm:

“Stopping a complex and deadly conflict such as the one in Ukraine requires an extensive discussion of serious and realistic ideas,” Rubio stated recently. “Furthermore, securing a lasting peace will necessitate both sides to agree to challenging but essential concessions. That is why we are and will continue to create a list of potential solutions for resolving this war based on feedback from each party of this war.”

Behind closed doors, he was reportedly much more doubtful of the proposal. The GOP lawmaker Mike Rounds stated last week at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had contacted lawmakers to clarify that the agreement was merely a preliminary offer from the Russians and not an initiative advocated by the administration.

“The Secretary did make a call to us this afternoon and I believe he made it very clear to us that we are the recipients of a offer that was presented to one of our officials,” stated Rounds. “It is not our suggestion, it is not our peace plan.”

Rubio acted swiftly to fall in line. “The peace proposal was authored by the US,” he later wrote. “The framework is presented as a strong framework for ongoing negotiations. The proposal is based on feedback from the Moscow. But, it is additionally informed by earlier and current input from Ukraine.”