🔗 Share this article

The US Army Secretary, Daniel Driscoll, was an surprising diplomat for the Trump administration latest initiative to resolve the conflict in Ukraine. Driscoll's strong relationship with JD Vance has placed a key ally of the Eurosceptic vice-president at the forefront of President Trump's recent effort to settle the war.

Before his last week's 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 labeled turbulent.

Driscoll's strong ties with Vance, who he attended Yale and shares a close friendship, indicate the rising influence of the non-interventionist vice-president in negotiations to end the Ukraine war.

Vance's Involvement in Peace Negotiations

This was Vance who intervened during Volodymyr Zelenskyy rocky first visit to the White House in March and demanded he show Trump more courtesy. Currently, Ukraine is again pushing back against demands from the US to accept a quick settlement that Ukrainian leaders have described as a capitulation.

After a chaotic initial year in power, international actions in the White House are reportedly shaped by a small group of Trump's key advisers, such as chief of staff Susie Wiles, rightwing adviser Stephen Miller, envoy Steve Witkoff, secretary of state Marco Rubio, and of course Vance.

Vance has been a vocal supporter of the latest proposal, which was developed by Witkoff and Trump's relative Jared Kushner, alongside the Kremlin envoy Kirill Dmitriev.

“Every objection of the ceasefire plan the administration is developing either misinterprets the framework or misstates some key reality on the ground,” the VP wrote.

Initial Attempts and European Reactions

Vance's early efforts at negotiating a ceasefire agreement with Russia, while simultaneously seeking to restore ties with Moscow, were unsuccessful and left his camp feeling frustrated with their Russian counterparts. Leaders in Europe, in turn, were irritated by his initial remarks, in which he accused them of running from their voters, who Vance said held anti-immigration and conservative positions close to those of Trump's own constituency.

But, the recently published peace deal mirrored his stances, and he has been one of the most assertive spokespeople for the deal in the government, even as the US has been under fire for accepting a ceasefire plan that largely echoes Vladimir Putin's maximalist demands.

In social media updates this weekend, Vance asserted that a peace deal would have to establish a ceasefire that respected Ukrainian independence, be agreeable to both sides, and stop the conflict from restarting.

“Peace won’t be made by unsuccessful diplomats or officials living in a dream world,” he continued. “It could be made by smart people living in the actual situation.”

It was Vance who continued on the introduction of the peace plan in a phone call with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had primarily instructed his team with obtaining a agreement on the peace deal before Thanksgiving this week in the United States.

Rubio's Response and Internal Concerns

That was a distinctly more full-throated support of the proposal than that expressed by the top diplomat and national security adviser, Marco Rubio, a more conventional hardliner in the government who has gone from a uncertain position inside the administration to more firm standing.

Rubio was a member of a US delegation that traveled 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 acceptable to authorities in Kyiv.

However, his first reaction to the agreement was lukewarm:

“Stopping a complex and violent conflict such as the one in Ukraine requires an thorough exchange of serious and realistic proposals,” Rubio stated recently. “And, achieving a durable ceasefire will require each party to consent to difficult but necessary concessions. This is the reason we are and will persist to create a list of possible solutions for resolving this conflict based on input from each party of this conflict.”

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

“Rubio made a phone call to us this afternoon 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 representatives,” said Rounds. “The document is not our suggestion, it is not our ceasefire proposal.”

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