🔗 Share this article

America's Army Secretary, Daniel Driscoll, was an surprising diplomat for the Trump administration newest proposal to resolve the conflict in Ukraine. Driscoll's close relationship with JD Vance has placed a key ally of the Euroskeptic VP at the center of President Trump's latest effort to settle the war.

Prior to his last week's trip to Kyiv, Driscoll was unrecognized as a mediator or statesman, and his early attempts to sell the agreement to European policymakers were labeled turbulent.

His strong ties with Vance, with whom he attended Yale and shares a close friendship, indicate the resurgence of the isolationist VP in negotiations to end the Ukraine crisis.

Vance's Role in Peace Efforts

This was Vance who stepped in during Volodymyr Zelenskyy disastrous initial visit to the Trump White House in March and demanded he show Trump more courtesy. Currently, Ukraine is once again pushing back against demands from the US to agree to a quick deal that Ukrainian leaders have called a surrender.

Following a chaotic first year in power, international decisions in the White House are said to be influenced by a handful of Trump's top aides, including top aide Susie Wiles, rightwing advisor Stephen Miller, envoy Steve Witkoff, State Department head Marco Rubio, and of course Vance.

Vance has been a vocal supporter of the latest plan, which was developed by Witkoff and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, alongside the Kremlin envoy Kirill Dmitriev.

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

Early Efforts and European Reactions

Vance's initial efforts at negotiating a peace deal with Russia, while simultaneously attempting to restore relations with Moscow, were unsuccessful and left his camp feeling disappointed with their Russian interlocutors. Leaders in Europe, in turn, were irritated by his early speeches, in which he charged them of running from their voters, who Vance claimed held restrictionist and right-leaning views close to those of Trump's own supporters.

But, the recently published ceasefire proposal mirrored his stances, and he has been one of the most forceful advocates for the agreement in the government, even as the US has been criticized for endorsing a ceasefire plan that mostly echoes Vladimir Putin's extreme terms.

In social media updates this past weekend, Vance argued that a peace deal would have to establish a ceasefire that respected Ukrainian independence, be agreeable to both sides, and stop the conflict from restarting.

“A ceasefire 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 introduction of the peace plan in a phone call with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had mainly tasked his staff with obtaining a agreement on the ceasefire accord prior to Thanksgiving this Thursday in the United States.

The Secretary of State's Response and Internal Concerns

Vance's stance was a distinctly more full-throated support of the plan than that expressed by the top diplomat and security advisor, Marco Rubio, a more conventional hardliner in the administration who has gone from a uncertain stature inside the administration to more firm footing.

Rubio was part of a US delegation that went to Geneva this past weekend to meet with Ukrainian leaders to help refine the initial 28-point peace plan in order to make it more acceptable to authorities in Kyiv.

But, his initial reaction to the deal was lukewarm:

“Ending a complicated and deadly war such as the one in Ukraine requires an thorough exchange of serious and pragmatic ideas,” Rubio wrote recently. “And, securing a lasting ceasefire will necessitate each party to agree to difficult but essential compromises. This is the reason we are and will persist to create a set of potential ideas for ending this war drawing from input from both sides of this war.”

Behind closed doors, he was reportedly much more doubtful of the proposal. The GOP lawmaker Mike Rounds said recently at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had called lawmakers to explain that the agreement was merely a initial offer from the Russians and not an initiative pushed by the White House.

“Rubio made a phone call to us this day and I think he made it very clear to us that we are the receivers of a proposal that was delivered to one of our representatives,” said Rounds. “It is not our suggestion, it is not our ceasefire proposal.”

Rubio moved quickly to fall in line. “The peace proposal was written by the US,” he subsequently stated. “The framework is presented as a solid framework for ongoing discussions. It is derived from input from the Russian side. However, it is additionally based on earlier and ongoing input from Ukraine.”