🔗 Share this article

America's Army Secretary, Daniel Driscoll, was an surprising diplomat for the White House's newest proposal to end the Russian invasion in Ukraine. His strong connection with JD Vance has positioned a close associate of the Euroskeptic 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 not known as a negotiator or statesman, and his initial attempts to sell the deal to European policymakers were labeled chaotic.

His close ties with Vance, who he attended Yale and shares a close friendship, signal the rising influence of the isolationist vice-president in talks to resolve the Ukraine crisis.

The VP's Role in Ceasefire Negotiations

This was Vance who intervened during Ukraine's president's disastrous first visit to the Trump White House in March and demanded he show Trump more respect. Now, Ukraine is once again pushing back against pressure from the US to agree to a quick settlement that local officials have described as a surrender.

After a tumultuous initial year in power, foreign policy decisions in the White House are said to be shaped by a handful of Trump's top aides, including top aide Susie Wiles, rightwing adviser Stephen Miller, diplomat Steve Witkoff, secretary of state Marco Rubio, and finally Vance.

Vance has been a vocal supporter of the recent plan, which was crafted by Witkoff and Trump's relative Jared Kushner, together with the Russian diplomat Kirill Dmitriev.

“Every objection of the peace framework the administration is developing either misinterprets the framework or misstates some critical situation on the ground,” the VP wrote.

Early Efforts and European Reactions

Vance's initial efforts at negotiating a ceasefire agreement with Russia, while also seeking to restore ties with Moscow, were unsuccessful and left his team feeling disappointed with their Russian counterparts. Leaders in Europe, meanwhile, were irritated by his initial remarks, in which he accused them of running from their constituents, who Vance said held restrictionist and right-leaning positions close to those of Trump's own constituency.

But, the recently published ceasefire proposal mirrored his stances, and he has been one of the most forceful advocates for the agreement in the government, even as the US has been criticized for endorsing a peace framework that mostly resembles Vladimir Putin's maximalist terms.

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

“Peace won’t be made by failed negotiators or officials residing in a fantasy land,” he continued. “An agreement could be made by smart people operating in the real world.”

Additionally, it was Vance who continued on the introduction of the peace plan in a phone call with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had primarily tasked his staff with securing a signature on the ceasefire accord before Thanksgiving this week in the United States.

Rubio's Response and Internal Doubts

That was a distinctly more full-throated endorsement of the plan than that given by the secretary of state and security advisor, Marco Rubio, a more conventional hawk in the government who has transitioned from a shaky position inside the administration to more stable standing.

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

However, his first reaction to the deal was tepid:

“Ending a complicated and deadly war such as the one in Ukraine demands an thorough exchange of serious and pragmatic ideas,” Rubio stated recently. “And, achieving a lasting peace will require each party to consent to challenging but necessary compromises. This is the reason we are and will persist to create a list of potential solutions for resolving this conflict drawing from feedback from both sides of this war.”

In private, he was reportedly much more skeptical of the proposal. The Republican senator Mike Rounds said recently at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had called lawmakers to explain that the agreement was just a preliminary offer from the Russians and not an initiative pushed by the administration.

“Rubio did make a call to us this day and I believe he made it very clear to us that we are the recipients of a proposal that was presented to one of our officials,” stated Rounds. “The document is not our suggestion, it is not our ceasefire proposal.”

Rubio acted swiftly to align himself. “The peace proposal was written by the US,” he subsequently stated. “The framework is offered as a solid structure for continuing negotiations. It is based on feedback from the Russian side. But, it is additionally based on earlier and current contributions from Ukraine.”