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America's Army Secretary, Dan Driscoll, emerged as an surprising envoy for the Trump administration latest initiative to end the conflict in Ukraine. Driscoll's strong connection with Vice President Vance has positioned a close associate of the Euroskeptic VP at the forefront of President Trump's recent effort to settle the conflict.

Prior to his recent visit to Kyiv, Driscoll was not known as a mediator or diplomat, and his initial attempts to promote the agreement to European policymakers were labeled chaotic.

Driscoll's strong relationship with Vance, who he studied and shares a close friendship, indicate the rising influence of the isolationist vice-president in talks to resolve the Ukraine crisis.

Vance's Involvement in Peace Negotiations

It was Vance who stepped in during Volodymyr Zelenskyy rocky first trip to the Trump White House in March and demanded he show Trump more respect. Now, Ukraine is once again pushing back against demands from the US to agree to a quick deal that local officials have described as a capitulation.

After a chaotic first year in power, international decisions in the White House are reportedly influenced by a small group of Trump's key advisers, such as top aide 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, alongside the Russian diplomat Kirill Dmitriev.

“Every objection of the ceasefire plan the administration is working on either misunderstands the proposal or misstates some key reality on the ground,” the VP stated.

Initial Efforts and European Reactions

Vance's initial attempts at negotiating a ceasefire agreement with Russia, while simultaneously seeking to restore relations with Moscow, were fruitless and left his team feeling disappointed with their Russian interlocutors. Leaders in Europe, in turn, were irritated by his initial speeches, in which he charged them of running from their voters, who Vance said held restrictionist and right-leaning views similar to those of Trump's own constituency.

But, the new 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 resembles Vladimir Putin's extreme terms.

In posts this past weekend, Vance asserted that a peace deal would have to produce a truce that respected Ukrainian sovereignty, be agreeable to each party, and stop the conflict from restarting.

“A ceasefire won’t be made by unsuccessful diplomats or officials residing in a fantasy land,” he continued. “It could be made by smart people living in the actual situation.”

Additionally, it was Vance who followed up on the presentation of the peace plan in a conversation with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had primarily tasked his staff with securing a agreement on the peace deal prior to Thanksgiving this week in the United States.

Rubio's Response and Private Doubts

That was a notably more enthusiastic endorsement of the plan than that given by the top diplomat and national security adviser, Marco Rubio, a more conventional hardliner in the administration who has gone from a uncertain stature inside the White House to more firm footing.

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

But, his initial reaction to the deal was tepid:

“Ending a complex and violent conflict such as the one in Ukraine demands an extensive exchange of substantive and pragmatic ideas,” Rubio wrote over the weekend. “And, securing a lasting ceasefire will necessitate both sides to consent to difficult but essential concessions. This is the reason we are and will persist to create a set of possible ideas for ending this conflict drawing from input from both sides 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 lawmakers to clarify that the agreement was just a preliminary proposal from the Russians and not an plan advocated by the White House.

“The Secretary made a phone call to us this day and I think he emphasized to us that we are the recipients of a proposal that was delivered to one of our officials,” stated Rounds. “The document is not our suggestion, it is not our peace plan.”

Rubio acted swiftly to fall in line. “This ceasefire plan was written by the US,” he later wrote. “It is offered as a solid structure for ongoing negotiations. It is derived from feedback from the Russian side. However, it is additionally informed by earlier and ongoing input from Ukraine.”