🔗 Share this article

The US Army Secretary, Daniel Driscoll, was an surprising diplomat for the Trump administration newest proposal to end the conflict in Ukraine. His strong relationship with JD Vance has positioned a key ally of the Eurosceptic vice-president at the center of Donald Trump latest push to settle the conflict.

Prior to his last week's visit to Kyiv, Driscoll was unrecognized as a negotiator or statesman, and his initial efforts to promote the deal to officials in Europe were labeled turbulent.

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

Vance's Involvement in Peace Efforts

This was Vance who intervened during Volodymyr Zelenskyy rocky first visit to the White House in March and demanded he show Trump more courtesy. Now, Ukraine is once again resisting pressure from the US to accept a quick deal that Ukrainian leaders have described as a surrender.

After a chaotic first year in office, international actions in the White House are said to be shaped by a handful of Trump's key aides, including chief of staff Susie Wiles, conservative adviser Stephen Miller, diplomat Steve Witkoff, State Department head Marco Rubio, and finally Vance.

Vance has been a vocal advocate of the latest plan, which was crafted by Witkoff and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, together with the Kremlin envoy Kirill Dmitriev.

“All criticism of the peace framework the White House is developing either misunderstands the framework or misstates some key situation on the ground,” Vance wrote.

Early Attempts and European Responses

Vance's early attempts at hammering out a peace deal with Russia, while simultaneously 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 early remarks, in which he accused them of ignoring their constituents, who Vance said held anti-immigration and conservative positions close to those of Trump's own supporters.

But, the new ceasefire proposal mirrored his positions, and he has been one of the most assertive advocates for the deal in the government, even as the US has been under fire for accepting a peace framework that mostly echoes Vladimir Putin's extreme demands.

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

“A ceasefire will not be made by failed negotiators or officials living in a fantasy land,” he added. “It might be made by smart people living in the real world.”

It was Vance who continued on the introduction of the ceasefire proposal in a phone call with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had mainly instructed his staff with obtaining a agreement on the ceasefire accord before Thanksgiving this week in the United States.

Rubio's Response and Private Concerns

Vance's stance was a notably more full-throated support of the proposal than that given by the secretary of state and security advisor, Marco Rubio, a more conventional hawk in the administration who has transitioned from a shaky stature inside the administration to more firm footing.

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 peace plan in order to make it more palatable to leaders in Kyiv.

However, his first reaction to the agreement was lukewarm:

“Ending a complex and deadly war such as the one in Ukraine demands an thorough discussion of substantive and pragmatic proposals,” Rubio stated over the weekend. “And, achieving a lasting ceasefire will require both sides to consent to difficult but necessary compromises. That is why we are and will continue to develop a set of potential solutions for ending this war based on input from each party of this conflict.”

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 called lawmakers to clarify that the agreement was merely a preliminary proposal from the Russians and not an initiative advocated by the White House.

“The Secretary made a call to us this day and I think he made it very clear to us that we are the recipients of a offer 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 written by the US,” he subsequently wrote. “It is presented as a strong structure for continuing discussions. The proposal is derived from feedback from the Russian side. But, it is also informed by earlier and current contributions from Ukraine.”