🔗 Share this article

America's Army Secretary, Dan Driscoll, emerged as an surprising envoy for the White House's newest initiative to end the conflict in Ukraine. His strong relationship with Vice President Vance has positioned a key ally of the Euroskeptic vice-president at the forefront of Donald Trump recent effort to settle the war.

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

Driscoll's strong relationship 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 war.

Vance's Role in Ceasefire Negotiations

It was Vance who intervened during Volodymyr Zelenskyy disastrous first visit to the Trump White House in March and insisted he show Trump more courtesy. Now, Ukraine is again pushing back against pressure from the US to agree to a quick settlement that Ukrainian leaders have described as a surrender.

After a tumultuous first year in office, international actions in the White House are said to be shaped by a handful of Trump's key advisers, including top aide Susie Wiles, rightwing advisor Stephen Miller, envoy Steve Witkoff, secretary of state Marco Rubio, and finally Vance.

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

“Every criticism of the peace framework the administration is developing either misinterprets the proposal or misstates some critical situation on the ground,” Vance stated.

Initial Attempts and European Responses

Vance's initial efforts at hammering out a ceasefire agreement with Russia, while simultaneously seeking to renew ties with Moscow, were fruitless and left his camp feeling frustrated with their Russian counterparts. Leaders in Europe, in turn, were angered by his initial speeches, in which he charged them of running from their voters, who Vance claimed held restrictionist and conservative views similar to those of Trump's own supporters.

But, the new ceasefire proposal mirrored his positions, and he has been one of the most forceful spokespeople for the agreement in the administration, even as the US has been criticized for accepting a peace framework that largely resembles Vladimir Putin's maximalist demands.

In social media updates this weekend, Vance asserted that a ceasefire agreement would have to produce a truce that respected Ukrainian sovereignty, be agreeable to each party, and stop the war from restarting.

“Peace will not be made by failed diplomats or officials living in a fantasy land,” he continued. “An agreement might be made by intelligent people operating in the actual situation.”

Additionally, it was Vance who followed up on the introduction of the ceasefire proposal in a phone call with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had primarily tasked his team with obtaining a signature on the peace deal prior to Thanksgiving this Thursday in the United States.

The Secretary of State's Response and Private Doubts

Vance's stance was a distinctly more full-throated support of the proposal than that expressed by the secretary of state and security advisor, Marco Rubio, a more traditional hardliner in the administration who has gone from a shaky position inside the White House to more firm standing.

Rubio was part of a US delegation that traveled to Geneva this weekend to meet with Ukrainian leaders to help refine the original 28-point peace plan in order to make it more acceptable to leaders in Kyiv.

However, his initial response to the deal was lukewarm:

“Stopping a complex and deadly war such as the one in Ukraine requires an extensive exchange of substantive and realistic ideas,” Rubio stated recently. “And, achieving a durable peace will require each party to consent to challenging but necessary concessions. That is why we are and will persist to create a set of potential solutions for resolving this conflict drawing from feedback from each party of this conflict.”

Behind closed doors, he was said to be much more skeptical of the plan. The GOP lawmaker Mike Rounds said recently at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had called legislators to clarify that the deal was merely a preliminary offer from the Russians and not an plan advocated by the White House.

“Rubio made a call to us this afternoon and I believe he emphasized to us that we are the receivers of a proposal that was delivered to one of our representatives,” stated 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 later wrote. “The framework is offered as a solid structure for continuing discussions. The proposal is based on input from the Russian side. However, it is additionally informed by earlier and ongoing contributions from Ukraine.”