🔗 Share this article

America's Secretary of the Army, Dan Driscoll, was an unlikely envoy for the White House's newest initiative to resolve the Russian invasion in Ukraine. His strong relationship with JD Vance has placed a key ally of the Eurosceptic vice-president at the center of President Trump's recent effort to settle the war.

Prior to his recent visit to Kyiv, Driscoll was not known as a negotiator or diplomat, and his early attempts to promote the agreement to officials in Europe were described as chaotic.

His close relationship with Vance, who he studied and maintains a personal bond, signal the rising influence of the non-interventionist vice-president in talks to end the Ukraine war.

The VP's Involvement in Ceasefire Negotiations

This was Vance who stepped in during Volodymyr Zelenskyy rocky initial trip to the Trump White House in March and demanded he show Trump more courtesy. Now, Ukraine is again resisting pressure from the US to accept a quick deal that Ukrainian leaders have described as a surrender.

After a tumultuous first year in power, international actions in the White House are said to be influenced by a small group of Trump's top aides, including chief of staff Susie Wiles, conservative advisor Stephen Miller, envoy Steve Witkoff, State Department head Marco Rubio, and finally Vance.

Vance has been a vocal advocate of the recent plan, which was crafted by Witkoff and Trump's relative Jared Kushner, together with the Kremlin envoy Kirill Dmitriev.

“Every objection of the peace framework the administration is developing either misunderstands the framework or misstates some critical situation on the ground,” Vance wrote.

Early Attempts and EU Reactions

Vance's early attempts at negotiating a ceasefire agreement with Russia, while simultaneously seeking to restore ties with Moscow, were unsuccessful and left his team feeling frustrated with their Russian interlocutors. European officials, meanwhile, were irritated by his early speeches, in which he charged them of ignoring their constituents, who Vance said held restrictionist and right-leaning views close to those of Trump's own constituency.

But, the recently published ceasefire proposal mirrored his stances, and he has been one of the most assertive advocates for the deal in the administration, even as the US has been under fire for accepting a peace framework that mostly resembles Vladimir Putin's extreme terms.

In posts this past weekend, Vance argued that a ceasefire agreement would have to produce a truce that respected Ukrainian sovereignty, be agreeable to both sides, and stop the war from resuming.

“Peace won’t be made by failed negotiators or officials residing in a dream world,” he continued. “It might be made by smart people operating in the actual situation.”

It was Vance who continued on the introduction of the ceasefire proposal in a conversation with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had mainly tasked his staff with obtaining a agreement on the peace deal before Thanksgiving this week in the United States.

The Secretary of State's Response and Internal Concerns

That was a notably more full-throated endorsement of the proposal than that given by the secretary of state and security advisor, Marco Rubio, a more traditional hawk in the administration who has transitioned from a shaky stature inside the White House to more stable footing.

Rubio was part of a US delegation that went to Geneva this past 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.

However, his initial reaction to the agreement was lukewarm:

“Stopping a complex and violent conflict such as the one in Ukraine demands an extensive exchange of serious and pragmatic ideas,” Rubio wrote recently. “And, achieving 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 list of potential solutions for resolving this conflict drawing from input from each party of this conflict.”

Behind closed doors, he was reportedly much more skeptical of the plan. The Republican senator Mike Rounds stated recently at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had contacted legislators to explain that the deal was merely a preliminary proposal from the Russians and not an initiative advocated by the White House.

“The Secretary did make a call to us this day and I believe 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 suggestion, it is not our peace plan.”

Rubio moved quickly to align himself. “This ceasefire plan was written by the US,” he later wrote. “It is presented as a strong structure for ongoing negotiations. It is based on feedback from the Moscow. But, it is additionally based on earlier and current contributions from Ukraine.”