🔗 Share this article

America's Army Secretary, Daniel Driscoll, emerged as an surprising envoy for the Trump administration latest initiative to resolve the conflict in Ukraine. His strong connection with JD Vance has placed a close associate of the Eurosceptic vice-president at the forefront of President Trump's recent effort to conclude the conflict.

Before his last week's 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.

Driscoll's strong relationship with Vance, who he studied and maintains a close friendship, indicate the resurgence of the isolationist VP in negotiations to end the Ukraine crisis.

Vance's Role in Ceasefire Negotiations

It was Vance who intervened during Ukraine's president's rocky 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 capitulation.

Following a chaotic first year in office, foreign policy actions in the White House are reportedly shaped by a small group of Trump's top advisers, such as chief of staff Susie Wiles, conservative advisor Stephen Miller, diplomat Steve Witkoff, State Department head Marco Rubio, and of course Vance.

Vance has been a outspoken advocate of the latest plan, which was crafted by Witkoff and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, alongside the Russian diplomat Kirill Dmitriev.

“All criticism of the peace framework the administration is working on either misunderstands the proposal or misstates some key reality on the ground,” Vance wrote.

Initial Efforts and EU Responses

Vance's initial attempts at hammering out a ceasefire agreement with Russia, while simultaneously seeking to restore relations with Moscow, were fruitless and left his team feeling frustrated with their Russian counterparts. European officials, meanwhile, were irritated by his initial speeches, in which he accused them of running from their constituents, who Vance claimed held restrictionist and right-leaning views similar to those of Trump's own supporters.

However, the new ceasefire proposal closely resembled his stances, and he has been one of the most forceful advocates for the deal in the administration, even as the US has been under fire for endorsing a peace framework that largely echoes Vladimir Putin's maximalist terms.

In social media updates this weekend, Vance argued that a peace deal would have to establish a truce that respected Ukrainian sovereignty, be agreeable to both sides, and stop the war from resuming.

“Peace will not be made by unsuccessful diplomats or politicians residing in a dream world,” he added. “It could be made by intelligent people operating in the real world.”

It was Vance who followed up on the presentation of the peace plan in a phone call with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had mainly instructed his staff with securing a signature on the peace deal before Thanksgiving this week in the United States.

The Secretary of State's Reaction and Private Concerns

That was a distinctly more enthusiastic endorsement of the proposal than that given by the top diplomat and national security adviser, Marco Rubio, a more conventional hardliner in the government who has transitioned from a uncertain position inside the administration to more stable footing.

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

However, his first response to the deal was tepid:

“Ending a complicated and violent conflict such as the one in Ukraine requires an thorough exchange of substantive and pragmatic ideas,” Rubio stated over the weekend. “Furthermore, achieving a lasting ceasefire will require each party to consent to challenging but necessary concessions. That is why we are and will persist to create a list of potential solutions for resolving this conflict drawing from feedback from both sides of this conflict.”

Behind closed doors, he was said to be much more doubtful of the proposal. The GOP lawmaker Mike Rounds said last week at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had called lawmakers to clarify that the deal was merely a initial proposal from the Russians and not an plan pushed by the White House.

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

Rubio moved quickly to align himself. “This ceasefire plan was written by the US,” he subsequently stated. “The framework is presented as a solid structure for continuing discussions. It is derived from feedback from the Moscow. However, it is additionally based on previous and current contributions from Ukraine.”