🔗 Share this article

The US Secretary of the Army, Dan Driscoll, emerged as an surprising envoy for the Trump administration newest proposal to resolve the conflict in Ukraine. His strong connection with Vice President Vance has positioned a key ally of the Eurosceptic vice-president at the forefront of President Trump's recent push to conclude the conflict.

Prior to his last week's trip to Kyiv, Driscoll was unrecognized as a negotiator or statesman, and his early efforts to promote the agreement to European policymakers were labeled turbulent.

Driscoll's strong ties with Vance, with whom he attended Yale and maintains a close friendship, indicate the resurgence of the non-interventionist vice-president in talks to end the Ukraine crisis.

Vance's Involvement in Ceasefire Negotiations

It was Vance who stepped in during Volodymyr Zelenskyy rocky initial 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 accept a quick deal that Ukrainian leaders have described as a capitulation.

Following a chaotic first year in power, foreign policy decisions in the White House are reportedly influenced by a small group of Trump's top advisers, such as chief of staff Susie Wiles, rightwing adviser Stephen Miller, envoy Steve Witkoff, secretary of state Marco Rubio, and finally Vance.

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

“All criticism of the ceasefire plan the White House is developing either misunderstands the proposal or misrepresents some key reality on the ground,” Vance wrote.

Early Efforts and EU Responses

Vance's early attempts at negotiating a ceasefire agreement with Russia, while also attempting to renew relations with Moscow, were fruitless and left his team feeling frustrated with their Russian counterparts. European officials, meanwhile, were irritated by his initial speeches, in which he accused them of running from their voters, who Vance claimed held anti-immigration and conservative positions close to those of Trump's own constituency.

However, the recently published 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 accepting a ceasefire plan that mostly echoes Vladimir Putin's maximalist terms.

In social media updates this weekend, Vance asserted that a peace deal would have to produce a ceasefire that honored Ukrainian sovereignty, be acceptable to each party, and prevent the war from restarting.

“Peace will not be made by unsuccessful negotiators or politicians residing in a dream world,” he continued. “An agreement might be made by smart people living in the actual situation.”

It was Vance who followed up on the presentation of the ceasefire proposal in a conversation with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had primarily instructed his staff with securing a signature on the peace deal before Thanksgiving this week in the United States.

Rubio's Response 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 security advisor, Marco Rubio, a more conventional hardliner in the administration who has transitioned from a shaky stature inside the White House to more firm footing.

Rubio was part of a US team that went to Geneva this weekend to confer with Ukrainian leaders to help moderate the initial 28-point peace plan in order to make it more acceptable to leaders in Kyiv.

However, his first reaction to the agreement was tepid:

“Ending a complex and deadly conflict such as the one in Ukraine requires an extensive exchange of serious and realistic ideas,” Rubio wrote recently. “Furthermore, achieving a lasting peace will necessitate both sides to consent to difficult but necessary compromises. That is why we are and will persist to develop a set of possible ideas for ending this war drawing from feedback from each party of this war.”

In private, he was said to be much more doubtful of the plan. The GOP lawmaker Mike Rounds stated recently at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had contacted legislators to clarify that the agreement was just a preliminary offer from the Russians and not an initiative pushed by the White House.

“The Secretary did make a phone call to us this afternoon and I think he made it very clear to us that we are the receivers of a proposal that was presented to one of our officials,” said Rounds. “It is not our recommendation, it is not our ceasefire proposal.”

Rubio moved quickly to fall in line. “The peace proposal was authored by the US,” he subsequently wrote. “The framework is presented as a strong framework for ongoing negotiations. The proposal is derived from feedback from the Moscow. But, it is also informed by previous and current contributions from Ukraine.”