🔗 Share this article

The US Army Secretary, Dan Driscoll, emerged as an surprising diplomat for the White House's latest initiative to end the conflict in Ukraine. His close connection with JD Vance has positioned a key ally of the Euroskeptic VP at the forefront of Donald Trump recent effort to settle the conflict.

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

His close ties with Vance, who he studied and shares a close friendship, indicate the resurgence of the non-interventionist vice-president in talks to resolve the Ukraine war.

Vance's Involvement in Ceasefire Negotiations

This was Vance who intervened during Ukraine's president's rocky first visit to the Trump White House in March and insisted he show Trump more courtesy. Now, Ukraine is once again pushing back against demands from the US to agree to a swift settlement that local officials have called a capitulation.

Following a tumultuous initial year in power, foreign policy decisions in the White House are said to be influenced by a small group of Trump's top advisers, such as top aide Susie Wiles, rightwing adviser Stephen Miller, diplomat Steve Witkoff, secretary of state 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, together with the Kremlin envoy Kirill Dmitriev.

“All criticism of the peace framework the White House is developing either misinterprets the proposal or misrepresents some critical reality on the ground,” Vance wrote.

Initial Attempts and EU Responses

Vance's initial attempts at negotiating a peace deal with Russia, while simultaneously seeking to renew relations with Moscow, were unsuccessful and left his team feeling frustrated with their Russian interlocutors. Leaders in Europe, in turn, were angered by his initial speeches, in which he accused them of ignoring their voters, who Vance said held restrictionist and right-leaning positions similar to those of Trump's own supporters.

But, the recently published ceasefire proposal mirrored his positions, and he has been one of the most forceful spokespeople for the agreement in the government, even as the US has been criticized for endorsing a ceasefire plan that mostly resembles Vladimir Putin's extreme demands.

In posts this weekend, Vance asserted that a ceasefire agreement would have to produce a ceasefire that respected Ukrainian sovereignty, be agreeable to each party, and stop the conflict from restarting.

“A ceasefire will not be made by failed diplomats or politicians residing in a fantasy land,” he continued. “An agreement could be made by smart people living in the real world.”

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

Rubio's Response and Private Concerns

Vance's stance was a notably 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 White House to more firm standing.

Rubio was part of a US delegation that went to Geneva this weekend to meet with Ukrainian leaders to help moderate the original 28-point peace plan in order to make it more palatable to authorities in Kyiv.

However, his first response to the agreement was tepid:

“Ending a complex and deadly conflict such as the one in Ukraine demands an thorough exchange of serious and realistic proposals,” Rubio wrote over the weekend. “And, achieving a durable ceasefire will require both sides to consent to challenging but necessary compromises. This is the reason we are and will persist to create a set of possible ideas for resolving this war based on feedback from both sides of this conflict.”

In private, he was said to be much more skeptical of the proposal. The GOP lawmaker Mike Rounds stated last week at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had called legislators to explain that the agreement was just a preliminary proposal from the Russians and not an plan pushed by the administration.

“Rubio did make a phone call to us this day and I think he made it very clear to us that we are the receivers of a offer that was delivered to one of our representatives,” stated Rounds. “It is not our recommendation, it is not our peace plan.”

Rubio acted swiftly to align himself. “This ceasefire plan was authored by the US,” he subsequently stated. “It is presented as a strong framework for continuing discussions. It is derived from feedback from the Moscow. But, it is also based on earlier and current input from Ukraine.”