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America's Army Secretary, Daniel Driscoll, emerged as an surprising envoy for the White House's latest proposal to resolve the conflict in Ukraine. His strong relationship with Vice President Vance has positioned a close associate of the Euroskeptic vice-president at the forefront of President Trump's recent push to conclude the conflict.

Prior to his recent visit to Kyiv, Driscoll was unrecognized as a mediator or statesman, and his initial attempts to sell the deal to officials in Europe were described as turbulent.

Driscoll's strong relationship with Vance, who he attended Yale and shares a close friendship, indicate the rising influence of the isolationist VP in negotiations to resolve the Ukraine crisis.

Vance's Role in Ceasefire Negotiations

It was Vance who intervened during Ukraine's president's disastrous initial visit to the White House in March and demanded he show Trump more respect. Currently, Ukraine is once again pushing back against demands from the US to accept a swift settlement that local officials have called a surrender.

After a tumultuous initial year in office, international actions in the White House are reportedly shaped by a handful of Trump's top advisers, such as chief of staff Susie Wiles, conservative advisor Stephen Miller, diplomat Steve Witkoff, secretary of state Marco Rubio, and of course Vance.

Vance has been a outspoken supporter of the latest plan, which was developed by Witkoff and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, together with the Kremlin envoy Kirill Dmitriev.

“All objection of the peace framework the administration is developing either misunderstands the framework or misrepresents some critical situation on the ground,” Vance stated.

Early Attempts and European Responses

Vance's early efforts at negotiating a ceasefire agreement with Russia, while simultaneously attempting to restore ties with Moscow, were unsuccessful and left his team feeling disappointed with their Russian interlocutors. European officials, meanwhile, were angered by his early speeches, in which he charged them of ignoring their voters, who Vance claimed held anti-immigration and right-leaning positions similar to those of Trump's own supporters.

But, the recently published peace deal mirrored his stances, and he has been one of the most forceful advocates for the deal in the administration, even as the US has been under fire for endorsing a peace framework that mostly echoes Vladimir Putin's maximalist terms.

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

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

It was Vance who followed up on the presentation of the ceasefire proposal in a conversation with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had primarily tasked his team with securing a agreement on the peace deal prior to Thanksgiving this week in the United States.

Rubio's Response and Internal Concerns

Vance's stance was a distinctly more enthusiastic support of the plan than that expressed by the secretary of state and security advisor, Marco Rubio, a more traditional hawk in the government who has transitioned from a uncertain stature inside the administration to more firm standing.

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

However, his initial reaction to the agreement was lukewarm:

“Ending a complex and violent conflict such as the one in Ukraine requires an extensive discussion of serious and realistic proposals,” Rubio wrote over the weekend. “Furthermore, securing a lasting peace will require each party to agree to challenging but essential compromises. That is why we are and will persist to create a list of potential solutions for ending this conflict drawing from feedback from both sides of this conflict.”

In private, he was reportedly much more doubtful of the proposal. The GOP lawmaker Mike Rounds said last week at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had called legislators to explain that the agreement was merely a preliminary offer from the Russians and not an plan pushed by the White House.

“Rubio did make a call to us this day and I think he emphasized to us that we are the recipients of a offer that was delivered to one of our representatives,” stated Rounds. “The document is not our suggestion, it is not our peace plan.”

Rubio moved quickly to align himself. “The peace proposal was authored by the US,” he later wrote. “The framework is presented as a strong framework for continuing discussions. It is derived from feedback from the Moscow. But, it is additionally informed by earlier and ongoing input from Ukraine.”