🔗 Share this article

The US Army Secretary, Daniel Driscoll, was an unlikely envoy for the White House's newest initiative to end the Russian invasion in Ukraine. His close relationship with Vice President Vance has positioned a key ally of the Eurosceptic VP at the center of Donald Trump recent push to conclude the conflict.

Prior to his recent trip to Kyiv, Driscoll was unrecognized as a mediator or diplomat, and his early attempts to promote the deal to officials in Europe were described as chaotic.

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

The VP's Involvement in Peace Efforts

This was Vance who stepped in during Ukraine's president's rocky first trip to the Trump White House in March and demanded he show Trump more respect. Now, Ukraine is once again pushing back against pressure from the US to accept a quick deal that Ukrainian leaders have described as a capitulation.

After a tumultuous first year in power, foreign policy actions in the White House are said to be shaped by a small group of Trump's key aides, such as chief of staff Susie Wiles, rightwing advisor Stephen Miller, envoy Steve Witkoff, secretary of state Marco Rubio, and finally Vance.

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

“All objection of the ceasefire plan the administration is developing either misinterprets the framework or misstates some key reality on the ground,” the VP stated.

Early Attempts and EU Responses

Vance's initial efforts at hammering out a peace deal with Russia, while also seeking to renew relations with Moscow, were fruitless and left his team feeling frustrated with their Russian counterparts. European officials, meanwhile, were irritated by his initial 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 supporters.

But, the recently published ceasefire proposal closely resembled his stances, and he has been one of the most forceful advocates for the deal in the government, even as the US has been criticized for accepting a peace framework that mostly resembles Vladimir Putin's extreme demands.

In posts this past weekend, Vance asserted that a peace deal would have to establish a ceasefire that respected Ukrainian sovereignty, be acceptable to each party, and prevent the conflict from restarting.

“Peace won’t be made by unsuccessful negotiators or officials residing in a fantasy land,” he continued. “An agreement could be made by smart people living 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 tasked his staff with securing a agreement on the peace deal before Thanksgiving this Thursday in the United States.

Rubio's Reaction and Private Doubts

Vance's stance was a notably more full-throated support of the plan than that expressed by the top diplomat and national security adviser, Marco Rubio, a more conventional hawk in the government who has transitioned from a shaky stature inside the White House to more stable standing.

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

However, his initial reaction to the agreement was tepid:

“Ending a complex and violent war such as the one in Ukraine requires an thorough exchange of substantive and pragmatic proposals,” Rubio wrote over the weekend. “And, securing a durable ceasefire will require each party to consent to challenging but essential compromises. This is the reason we are and will persist to develop a list of possible solutions for resolving this conflict based on feedback from both sides 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 called lawmakers to clarify that the deal was merely a initial offer from the Russians and not an plan pushed by the White House.

“Rubio did make 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 representatives,” stated Rounds. “The document is not our recommendation, it is not our ceasefire proposal.”

Rubio acted swiftly to align himself. “The peace proposal was written by the US,” he subsequently wrote. “It is presented as a solid framework for ongoing negotiations. It is derived from feedback from the Russian side. However, it is also informed by previous and ongoing contributions from Ukraine.”