🔗 Share this article

America's Secretary of the Army, Daniel Driscoll, emerged as an surprising envoy for the Trump administration newest initiative to resolve the Russian invasion in Ukraine. His strong connection with JD Vance has placed a key ally of the Euroskeptic VP at the center of President Trump's latest push to settle the conflict.

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 described as chaotic.

Driscoll's close ties with Vance, with whom he attended Yale and maintains a personal bond, indicate the resurgence of the isolationist VP in talks to end the Ukraine crisis.

The VP's Role in Peace Efforts

It was Vance who intervened during Volodymyr Zelenskyy rocky first visit to the White House in March and insisted he show Trump more courtesy. Now, Ukraine is again resisting pressure from the US to accept a quick deal that local officials have called a capitulation.

After a chaotic initial year in power, foreign policy decisions in the White House are said to be influenced by a handful of Trump's key aides, such as top aide Susie Wiles, rightwing advisor Stephen Miller, diplomat Steve Witkoff, secretary of state Marco Rubio, and of course Vance.

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

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

Early Attempts and European Reactions

Vance's initial attempts at negotiating a peace deal with Russia, while simultaneously seeking to renew relations with Moscow, were fruitless and left his camp feeling frustrated with their Russian counterparts. Leaders in Europe, in turn, were angered by his early speeches, in which he charged them of ignoring their constituents, 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 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 accepting a ceasefire plan that largely resembles Vladimir Putin's maximalist demands.

In posts this past weekend, Vance asserted that a ceasefire agreement would have to establish a truce that respected Ukrainian independence, be acceptable to both sides, and prevent the war from restarting.

“Peace won’t be made by unsuccessful negotiators or politicians living in a fantasy land,” he continued. “An agreement might be made by smart people living in the actual situation.”

Additionally, it was Vance who continued on the introduction of the ceasefire proposal in a phone call with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had mainly instructed his team with securing a signature on the peace deal before Thanksgiving this Thursday in the United States.

The Secretary of State's Reaction and Private Doubts

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

Rubio was a member of a US team that went to Geneva this past weekend to confer with Ukrainian leaders to help refine the initial 28-point ceasefire proposal in order to make it more palatable to leaders in Kyiv.

But, his initial reaction to the deal was tepid:

“Stopping a complicated and violent conflict such as the one in Ukraine requires an extensive exchange of serious and realistic ideas,” Rubio stated over the weekend. “Furthermore, securing a lasting ceasefire will necessitate both sides to consent to challenging but necessary concessions. This is the reason we are and will persist to create a set of possible ideas for resolving this conflict based on input from each party of this conflict.”

Behind closed doors, he was reportedly much more skeptical of the plan. The Republican senator Mike Rounds said last week at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had contacted legislators to explain that the agreement was just a initial proposal from the Russians and not an plan pushed 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. “It is not our suggestion, it is not our ceasefire proposal.”

Rubio moved quickly to align himself. “The peace proposal was written by the US,” he subsequently stated. “It is presented as a strong framework for ongoing negotiations. The proposal is based on feedback from the Moscow. But, it is also informed by previous and current input from Ukraine.”