🔗 Share this article

America's Secretary of the Army, Dan Driscoll, emerged as an unlikely envoy for the Trump administration newest proposal to resolve the conflict in Ukraine. His close relationship with JD Vance has positioned a close associate of the Euroskeptic VP at the forefront of President Trump's latest push to settle the conflict.

Before his recent visit to Kyiv, Driscoll was not known as a mediator or diplomat, and his initial efforts to promote the deal to officials in Europe were labeled turbulent.

Driscoll's strong ties with Vance, with whom he attended Yale and maintains a close friendship, indicate the resurgence of the non-interventionist VP in negotiations to resolve the Ukraine war.

Vance's Role in Ceasefire Negotiations

This was Vance who intervened during Volodymyr Zelenskyy disastrous first trip to the White House in March and demanded he show Trump more respect. Currently, Ukraine is again resisting pressure from the US to accept a swift settlement that local officials have described as a capitulation.

After a tumultuous first year in power, international decisions in the White House are reportedly shaped by a handful of Trump's key aides, such as top aide Susie Wiles, conservative adviser Stephen Miller, diplomat Steve Witkoff, secretary of state Marco Rubio, and finally Vance.

Vance has been a outspoken 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 peace framework the White House is developing either misunderstands the framework or misrepresents some key reality on the ground,” Vance stated.

Initial Attempts and EU Reactions

Vance's initial efforts at negotiating a peace deal with Russia, while simultaneously attempting to restore ties with Moscow, were unsuccessful and left his camp feeling frustrated with their Russian interlocutors. Leaders in Europe, in turn, 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 positions similar to those of Trump's own constituency.

However, the new ceasefire proposal closely resembled his positions, and he has been one of the most forceful spokespeople for the deal in the government, even as the US has been under fire for endorsing a peace framework that largely echoes Vladimir Putin's extreme demands.

In social media updates this weekend, Vance asserted that a peace deal would have to establish a truce that honored Ukrainian sovereignty, be acceptable to each party, and stop the conflict from resuming.

“Peace will not be made by failed diplomats or officials residing in a dream world,” he continued. “It could be made by intelligent people operating in the actual situation.”

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 securing a agreement on the peace deal before Thanksgiving this week in the United States.

Rubio's Reaction and Internal Concerns

Vance's stance was a distinctly more enthusiastic support of the proposal than that given by the secretary of state and security advisor, Marco Rubio, a more conventional hawk in the administration who has gone from a uncertain stature inside the White House to more stable standing.

Rubio was a member of a US delegation that went to Geneva this weekend to meet with Ukrainian officials to help refine the initial 28-point ceasefire proposal in order to make it more palatable to leaders in Kyiv.

But, his initial response to the agreement was lukewarm:

“Ending a complicated and deadly war such as the one in Ukraine requires an extensive discussion of substantive and realistic proposals,” Rubio wrote recently. “Furthermore, securing a durable peace will necessitate both sides to consent to difficult but necessary concessions. That is why we are and will persist to create a set of possible ideas for ending this war drawing from input from both sides of this war.”

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

“Rubio did make a call to us this day and I believe he emphasized to us that we are the receivers of a proposal that was delivered to one of our representatives,” said Rounds. “The document is not our suggestion, it is not our peace plan.”

Rubio moved quickly to align himself. “The peace proposal was authored by the US,” he later stated. “It is presented as a solid structure for continuing discussions. It is based on input from the Moscow. But, it is also based on previous and ongoing input from Ukraine.”