🔗 Share this article

America's Secretary of the Army, Daniel Driscoll, was an unlikely diplomat for the Trump administration newest proposal to end 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 conclude the war.

Before his recent visit to Kyiv, Driscoll was unrecognized as a mediator or statesman, and his early attempts to sell the agreement to European policymakers were described as chaotic.

Driscoll's strong ties with Vance, with whom he studied and maintains a close friendship, indicate the rising influence of the isolationist VP in talks to resolve the Ukraine war.

The VP's Involvement in Ceasefire Negotiations

This was Vance who intervened during Ukraine's president's rocky initial visit to the White House in March and demanded he show Trump more respect. Currently, Ukraine is again pushing back against pressure from the US to agree to a swift deal that Ukrainian leaders have called a surrender.

After a chaotic first year in office, international actions in the White House are said to be shaped by a small group of Trump's top advisers, including top aide Susie Wiles, conservative advisor Stephen Miller, diplomat Steve Witkoff, secretary of state Marco Rubio, and finally Vance.

Vance has been a vocal advocate of the recent proposal, which was crafted by Witkoff and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, together with the Russian diplomat Kirill Dmitriev.

“Every criticism of the peace framework the administration is working on either misinterprets the proposal or misrepresents some key situation on the ground,” the VP stated.

Initial Efforts and European Reactions

Vance's early attempts at hammering out a ceasefire agreement with Russia, while simultaneously attempting to renew relations with Moscow, were fruitless and left his team feeling disappointed with their Russian counterparts. European officials, in turn, were angered by his initial remarks, in which he accused them of running from their voters, who Vance claimed held anti-immigration and conservative views similar to those of Trump's own constituency.

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

In posts this weekend, Vance asserted that a ceasefire agreement would have to establish a truce that honored Ukrainian independence, be acceptable to both sides, and stop the war from resuming.

“A ceasefire won’t be made by unsuccessful negotiators or politicians residing in a dream world,” he continued. “It might be made by smart people living in the actual situation.”

Additionally, it was Vance who continued on the presentation of the ceasefire proposal in a conversation with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had primarily tasked his team with obtaining a agreement on the peace deal before Thanksgiving this week in the United States.

The Secretary of State's Reaction and Internal Concerns

Vance's stance was a notably more enthusiastic support of the plan than that expressed by the secretary of state and security advisor, Marco Rubio, a more traditional hawk in the administration who has transitioned from a uncertain stature inside the White House to more stable footing.

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

But, his initial reaction to the agreement was lukewarm:

“Stopping a complicated and deadly conflict such as the one in Ukraine demands an extensive discussion of serious and realistic ideas,” Rubio stated recently. “And, securing a durable ceasefire will necessitate each party to consent to challenging but necessary concessions. This is the reason we are and will continue to develop a set of possible solutions for resolving this conflict based on input 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 said last week at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had contacted legislators to explain that the deal was just a initial offer from the Russians and not an initiative advocated by the administration.

“Rubio did make a call to us this afternoon and I think he emphasized to us that we are the receivers of a proposal that was presented to one of our representatives,” stated Rounds. “It is not our recommendation, it is not our peace plan.”

Rubio moved quickly to fall in line. “The peace proposal was authored by the US,” he later stated. “The framework is offered as a strong structure for continuing discussions. The proposal is derived from input from the Russian side. However, it is additionally informed by previous and current input from Ukraine.”