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America's Secretary of the Army, Daniel Driscoll, emerged as an surprising envoy for the White House's latest initiative to end the Russian invasion in Ukraine. His strong connection with JD Vance has placed a key ally of the Euroskeptic vice-president at the forefront of Donald Trump recent push to settle the war.

Prior to his recent trip to Kyiv, Driscoll was unrecognized as a negotiator or diplomat, and his initial attempts to sell the agreement to European policymakers were labeled turbulent.

Driscoll's close relationship with Vance, who he attended Yale and maintains a personal bond, indicate the rising influence of the isolationist VP in negotiations to end the Ukraine war.

The VP's Involvement in Ceasefire Efforts

This was Vance who stepped in during Ukraine's president's rocky first visit to the Trump White House in March and demanded he show Trump more courtesy. Currently, Ukraine is again resisting pressure from the US to accept a swift deal that local officials have described as a surrender.

Following a chaotic initial year in power, international actions in the White House are said to be shaped by a handful of Trump's key advisers, such as chief of staff Susie Wiles, rightwing adviser Stephen Miller, diplomat Steve Witkoff, State Department head Marco Rubio, and of course Vance.

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

“Every criticism of the ceasefire plan the White House is developing either misinterprets the framework or misstates some critical reality on the ground,” the VP stated.

Initial Efforts and European Responses

Vance's initial attempts at hammering out a ceasefire agreement with Russia, while simultaneously seeking to restore ties with Moscow, were fruitless and left his camp feeling disappointed with their Russian interlocutors. European officials, meanwhile, were angered by his initial remarks, in which he accused them of running from their constituents, who Vance said held restrictionist and right-leaning views similar to those of Trump's own constituency.

However, the recently published ceasefire proposal mirrored his positions, and he has been one of the most assertive spokespeople for the agreement in the government, even as the US has been under fire for endorsing a ceasefire plan that largely resembles Vladimir Putin's maximalist demands.

In posts this weekend, Vance asserted that a ceasefire agreement would have to produce a truce that respected Ukrainian sovereignty, be acceptable to both sides, and prevent the war from resuming.

“Peace won’t be made by unsuccessful diplomats or politicians residing in a dream world,” he added. “An agreement could be made by intelligent people living in the real world.”

It was Vance who followed up on the presentation of the peace plan in a conversation with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had mainly instructed his team with securing a signature on the ceasefire accord before Thanksgiving this week in the United States.

Rubio's Response and Internal Doubts

That was a distinctly more full-throated support of the plan than that given by the secretary of state and national security adviser, Marco Rubio, a more traditional hawk in the administration who has transitioned from a uncertain stature inside the White House to more stable standing.

Rubio was part of a US team that went to Geneva this past 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 tepid:

“Ending a complicated and deadly war such as the one in Ukraine demands an thorough discussion of substantive and realistic proposals,” Rubio stated recently. “Furthermore, achieving a durable ceasefire will necessitate each party to agree to difficult but necessary compromises. This is the reason we are and will continue to develop a list of potential ideas for resolving this war based on feedback from each party of this conflict.”

Behind closed doors, he was reportedly much more doubtful of the proposal. The Republican senator Mike Rounds said last week at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had contacted lawmakers to explain that the deal was just a initial offer from the Russians and not an initiative advocated by the administration.

“Rubio made a phone 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 presented to one of our officials,” stated Rounds. “It is not our recommendation, it is not our ceasefire proposal.”

Rubio acted swiftly to fall in line. “The peace proposal was authored by the US,” he subsequently wrote. “The framework is presented as a solid structure for ongoing discussions. It is based on feedback from the Russian side. But, it is also informed by previous and current contributions from Ukraine.”