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The US Army Secretary, Dan Driscoll, emerged as an unlikely envoy for the Trump administration latest initiative to end the conflict in Ukraine. His strong connection with JD Vance has positioned a close associate of the Eurosceptic vice-president at the forefront of President Trump's recent push to settle the war.

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

Driscoll's close relationship with Vance, with whom he attended Yale and maintains a close friendship, signal the rising influence of the isolationist VP in talks to end the Ukraine crisis.

Vance's Involvement in Ceasefire Negotiations

It was Vance who intervened during Volodymyr Zelenskyy disastrous first visit to the White House in March and demanded he show Trump more respect. Currently, Ukraine is once again resisting demands from the US to accept a quick settlement that local officials have described as a capitulation.

After a tumultuous first year in power, international decisions in the White House are reportedly influenced by a handful of Trump's key aides, including chief of staff Susie Wiles, rightwing advisor Stephen Miller, envoy Steve Witkoff, State Department head Marco Rubio, and finally Vance.

Vance has been a outspoken supporter of the latest plan, which was developed by Witkoff and Trump's relative Jared Kushner, alongside the Russian diplomat Kirill Dmitriev.

“Every criticism of the ceasefire plan the White House is developing either misunderstands the framework or misstates some critical reality on the ground,” Vance wrote.

Early Efforts and EU Responses

Vance's initial attempts at negotiating a peace deal with Russia, while also attempting to renew ties with Moscow, were fruitless and left his camp feeling frustrated with their Russian interlocutors. European officials, meanwhile, were angered by his early speeches, in which he accused them of ignoring their voters, who Vance claimed held restrictionist and right-leaning positions similar to those of Trump's own constituency.

However, the recently published ceasefire proposal closely resembled his stances, and he has been one of the most assertive spokespeople for the agreement in the administration, even as the US has been criticized for accepting a peace framework that largely resembles Vladimir Putin's extreme terms.

In posts this past weekend, Vance argued that a peace deal would have to establish a truce that honored Ukrainian sovereignty, be acceptable to each party, and stop the war from resuming.

“Peace won’t be made by unsuccessful diplomats or officials residing in a fantasy land,” he added. “An agreement might be made by smart people living in the actual situation.”

Additionally, it was Vance who followed up on the introduction of the ceasefire proposal in a conversation with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had mainly tasked his team with securing a signature on the ceasefire accord prior to Thanksgiving this week in the United States.

The Secretary of State's Response and Private Doubts

Vance's stance was a distinctly more full-throated support of the plan than that expressed by the secretary of state and security advisor, Marco Rubio, a more traditional hawk in the administration who has gone from a shaky stature inside the administration to more stable standing.

Rubio was a member of a US delegation that went to Geneva this past weekend to confer with Ukrainian officials to help refine the original 28-point ceasefire proposal in order to make it more acceptable to authorities in Kyiv.

But, his first response to the deal was lukewarm:

“Ending a complicated and deadly war such as the one in Ukraine requires an thorough exchange of serious and pragmatic proposals,” Rubio wrote recently. “Furthermore, achieving a durable peace will necessitate both sides to consent to difficult but essential compromises. That is why we are and will persist to create a list of possible ideas for resolving this conflict based on feedback from each party of this war.”

In private, he was said to be much more skeptical of the proposal. The GOP lawmaker 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 initial proposal from the Russians and not an initiative advocated by the administration.

“Rubio did make a phone call to us this day and I believe he emphasized to us that we are the recipients of a proposal that was presented to one of our officials,” said Rounds. “It is not our suggestion, it is not our peace plan.”

Rubio acted swiftly to fall in line. “The peace proposal was authored by the US,” he subsequently stated. “It is presented as a strong framework for continuing negotiations. It is derived from input from the Russian side. But, it is also based on earlier and ongoing contributions from Ukraine.”