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America's Army Secretary, Dan Driscoll, emerged as an surprising envoy for the Trump administration newest initiative to end the Russian invasion in Ukraine. Driscoll's strong relationship with JD Vance has placed a key ally of the Eurosceptic vice-president at the center of President Trump's latest effort to settle the conflict.

Prior to his recent trip to Kyiv, Driscoll was not known as a mediator or diplomat, and his initial efforts to promote the deal to officials in Europe were labeled chaotic.

Driscoll's strong relationship with Vance, with whom he attended Yale and shares a personal bond, signal the resurgence of the isolationist VP in talks to end the Ukraine war.

The VP's Role in Ceasefire Efforts

This was Vance who stepped in during Ukraine's president's disastrous initial trip to the White House in March and insisted he show Trump more respect. Currently, Ukraine is again resisting demands from the US to accept a swift settlement that Ukrainian leaders have described as a surrender.

Following a tumultuous first year in power, international decisions in the White House are said to be influenced by a handful of Trump's key aides, such as chief of staff Susie Wiles, rightwing adviser Stephen Miller, diplomat Steve Witkoff, State Department head Marco Rubio, and finally Vance.

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

“All objection of the peace framework the administration is working on either misinterprets the framework or misrepresents some critical reality on the ground,” Vance stated.

Early Attempts and EU Reactions

Vance's initial efforts at negotiating a ceasefire agreement with Russia, while simultaneously attempting to restore ties with Moscow, were unsuccessful and left his team feeling frustrated with their Russian counterparts. European officials, in turn, were angered by his initial remarks, in which he charged them of ignoring their voters, who Vance said held anti-immigration and right-leaning positions similar to those of Trump's own constituency.

But, the new ceasefire proposal 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 criticized for endorsing a ceasefire plan that mostly echoes Vladimir Putin's extreme terms.

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

“Peace will not be made by unsuccessful diplomats or politicians residing in a dream world,” he continued. “An agreement might be made by intelligent people living in the real world.”

It was Vance who followed up on the presentation of the peace plan in a phone call with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had primarily instructed his staff with obtaining a signature on the ceasefire accord before Thanksgiving this Thursday in the United States.

The Secretary of State's Response and Internal Concerns

Vance's stance was a notably more enthusiastic support of the proposal than that expressed by the secretary of state and security advisor, Marco Rubio, a more traditional hardliner in the government who has transitioned from a shaky position inside the White House to more firm standing.

Rubio was part of a US delegation that went to Geneva this past weekend to confer with Ukrainian leaders to help moderate the original 28-point ceasefire proposal in order to make it more palatable to authorities in Kyiv.

But, his first response to the agreement was tepid:

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

Behind closed doors, he was said to be much more skeptical of the plan. The GOP lawmaker 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 merely a initial proposal from the Russians and not an initiative pushed by the White House.

“The Secretary did make a phone 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,” said Rounds. “It is not our recommendation, it is not our peace plan.”

Rubio moved quickly to align himself. “This ceasefire plan was authored by the US,” he later wrote. “The framework is offered as a solid framework for ongoing discussions. The proposal is derived from feedback from the Russian side. But, it is additionally based on previous and ongoing contributions from Ukraine.”