🔗 Share this article

The US Secretary of the Army, Dan Driscoll, was an surprising diplomat for the White House's latest initiative to resolve the Russian invasion in Ukraine. Driscoll's close connection with Vice President Vance has positioned a key ally of the Eurosceptic vice-president at the forefront of Donald Trump latest push to conclude the conflict.

Prior to his recent visit to Kyiv, Driscoll was not known as a negotiator or diplomat, and his initial attempts to sell the agreement to officials in Europe were labeled turbulent.

Driscoll's strong ties with Vance, who he studied and shares a personal bond, signal the resurgence of the non-interventionist vice-president in negotiations to resolve the Ukraine war.

The VP's Involvement in Peace Negotiations

It was Vance who stepped in during Volodymyr Zelenskyy disastrous initial trip to the Trump White House in March and demanded he show Trump more respect. Currently, Ukraine is once again pushing back against pressure from the US to agree to a quick settlement that Ukrainian leaders have described as a surrender.

After a chaotic initial year in office, foreign policy actions in the White House are reportedly shaped by a small group of Trump's key advisers, such as top aide Susie Wiles, conservative adviser Stephen Miller, envoy Steve Witkoff, State Department head Marco Rubio, and finally Vance.

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

“Every objection of the ceasefire plan the administration is working on either misinterprets the framework or misrepresents some key reality on the ground,” Vance wrote.

Initial Attempts and European Reactions

Vance's early attempts at hammering out a peace deal with Russia, while also attempting to renew ties with Moscow, were fruitless and left his team feeling disappointed with their Russian counterparts. European officials, meanwhile, were irritated by his initial speeches, in which he accused them of ignoring their voters, who Vance claimed held restrictionist and conservative positions close to those of Trump's own supporters.

But, the recently published ceasefire proposal closely resembled his positions, and he has been one of the most assertive spokespeople for the agreement in the government, even as the US has been criticized for accepting a peace framework that mostly echoes Vladimir Putin's maximalist terms.

In social media updates this past weekend, Vance argued that a peace deal would have to establish a truce that respected Ukrainian sovereignty, be acceptable to both sides, and prevent the conflict from resuming.

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

It was Vance who continued on the presentation of the peace plan in a phone call with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had primarily instructed his team with securing a agreement on the ceasefire accord prior to Thanksgiving this Thursday in the United States.

The Secretary of State's Reaction and Private 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 traditional hardliner in the administration who has transitioned from a shaky stature inside the administration to more firm standing.

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

But, his initial reaction to the agreement was tepid:

“Stopping a complicated and violent conflict such as the one in Ukraine requires an thorough discussion of serious and realistic ideas,” Rubio stated over the weekend. “And, achieving a lasting peace will necessitate each party to agree to challenging but necessary compromises. This is the reason we are and will persist to create a set of possible solutions for resolving this war drawing from feedback from both sides of this conflict.”

In private, he was said to be much more skeptical of the proposal. The Republican senator Mike Rounds said last week at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had called legislators to explain that the deal was merely a initial proposal from the Russians and not an initiative pushed by the administration.

“Rubio made a phone call to us this afternoon and I believe he emphasized to us that we are the recipients of a offer 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 written by the US,” he subsequently wrote. “It is offered as a solid structure for ongoing negotiations. It is derived from feedback from the Russian side. But, it is also informed by earlier and current input from Ukraine.”