🔗 Share this article

The US Army Secretary, Daniel Driscoll, was an surprising envoy for the Trump administration latest initiative to resolve the Russian invasion in Ukraine. His strong relationship with Vice President Vance has positioned a key ally of the Eurosceptic vice-president at the forefront of Donald Trump latest push to conclude the war.

Prior to his last week's visit to Kyiv, Driscoll was unrecognized as a mediator or diplomat, and his initial efforts to promote the agreement to officials in Europe were described as turbulent.

His close ties with Vance, with whom he studied and shares a close friendship, signal the resurgence of the isolationist vice-president in negotiations to end the Ukraine war.

The VP's Involvement in Ceasefire Negotiations

This was Vance who stepped in during Ukraine's president's rocky initial trip to the White House in March and insisted he show Trump more courtesy. Currently, Ukraine is once again pushing back against demands from the US to accept a quick deal that Ukrainian leaders have called a surrender.

After a tumultuous initial year in office, foreign policy actions in the White House are said to be shaped by a small group of Trump's key advisers, including top aide Susie Wiles, conservative advisor Stephen Miller, envoy Steve Witkoff, State Department head Marco Rubio, and of course Vance.

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

“All criticism of the peace framework the administration is working on either misunderstands the framework or misrepresents some critical situation on the ground,” the VP wrote.

Initial Attempts and EU Reactions

Vance's initial attempts at negotiating a ceasefire agreement with Russia, while simultaneously seeking to renew ties with Moscow, were unsuccessful and left his team feeling disappointed with their Russian interlocutors. Leaders in Europe, meanwhile, were angered by his initial speeches, in which he accused them of ignoring their voters, who Vance said held anti-immigration and right-leaning positions close to those of Trump's own constituency.

But, the new peace deal mirrored his stances, and he has been one of the most assertive spokespeople for the agreement in the administration, even as the US has been under fire for endorsing a peace framework that mostly echoes Vladimir Putin's maximalist terms.

In posts this weekend, Vance asserted that a peace deal would have to produce a truce that honored Ukrainian independence, be acceptable to each party, and stop the conflict from restarting.

“A ceasefire won’t be made by failed diplomats or politicians residing in a dream world,” he added. “An agreement could be made by intelligent people living in the actual situation.”

Additionally, it was Vance who followed up on the introduction of the ceasefire proposal in a phone call with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had primarily instructed his team with securing a signature on the ceasefire accord prior to Thanksgiving this Thursday in the United States.

The Secretary of State's Reaction and Internal Concerns

That was a distinctly more full-throated support of the proposal than that expressed by the secretary of state and national security adviser, Marco Rubio, a more traditional hawk in the government who has gone from a shaky position inside the White House to more firm standing.

Rubio was part of a US delegation that traveled to Geneva this 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 response to the deal was lukewarm:

“Ending a complicated and deadly conflict such as the one in Ukraine demands an thorough discussion of serious and pragmatic ideas,” Rubio wrote over the weekend. “Furthermore, achieving a durable peace will necessitate both sides to agree to difficult but necessary concessions. This is the reason we are and will persist to develop a list of potential solutions for resolving this war drawing from input from both sides of this war.”

In private, he was said to be much more doubtful of the plan. The Republican senator Mike Rounds said last week at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had contacted lawmakers to clarify that the deal was just a initial offer from the Russians and not an plan advocated by the administration.

“Rubio made 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 presented to one of our officials,” said Rounds. “The document is not our recommendation, it is not our ceasefire proposal.”

Rubio acted swiftly to align himself. “The peace proposal was authored by the US,” he subsequently stated. “It is offered as a strong structure for continuing discussions. The proposal is based on feedback from the Russian side. But, it is also informed by previous and ongoing input from Ukraine.”