🔗 Share this article

The US Secretary of the Army, Dan Driscoll, was an unlikely diplomat for the White House's latest initiative to resolve the Russian invasion in Ukraine. Driscoll's close relationship with Vice President Vance has placed a key ally of the Eurosceptic VP at the forefront of President Trump's recent effort to settle the conflict.

Before his recent trip to Kyiv, Driscoll was unrecognized as a mediator or statesman, and his early efforts to promote the deal to officials in Europe were described as chaotic.

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

Vance's Involvement in Ceasefire Negotiations

This was Vance who intervened during Volodymyr Zelenskyy disastrous initial trip to the Trump White House in March and demanded he show Trump more courtesy. Currently, Ukraine is once again resisting demands from the US to agree to a swift deal that Ukrainian leaders have called a capitulation.

After a tumultuous initial year in power, foreign policy actions in the White House are reportedly influenced by a small group of Trump's top aides, such as top aide Susie Wiles, conservative adviser Stephen Miller, envoy Steve Witkoff, secretary of state Marco Rubio, and of course Vance.

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

“Every objection of the peace framework the White House is working on either misunderstands the framework or misrepresents some critical reality on the ground,” the VP stated.

Early Attempts and EU Responses

Vance's early efforts at negotiating a peace deal with Russia, while simultaneously attempting to renew ties with Moscow, were fruitless and left his team feeling disappointed with their Russian interlocutors. European officials, in turn, were irritated by his initial remarks, in which he accused them of running from their voters, who Vance said held restrictionist and conservative positions close to those of Trump's own constituency.

However, the new peace deal mirrored his stances, and he has been one of the most assertive spokespeople for the deal in the government, even as the US has been under fire for endorsing a peace framework that largely resembles Vladimir Putin's extreme demands.

In social media updates this past weekend, Vance argued that a ceasefire agreement would have to produce a truce that honored Ukrainian sovereignty, be acceptable to both sides, and stop the war from restarting.

“Peace won’t be made by failed diplomats or politicians living in a dream world,” he added. “An agreement might be made by intelligent people living in the real world.”

Additionally, it was Vance who followed up on the introduction of the ceasefire proposal 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 Internal Concerns

Vance's stance was a notably more full-throated support of the proposal than that expressed by the top diplomat and national security adviser, Marco Rubio, a more traditional hawk in the administration who has transitioned from a uncertain position inside the administration to more firm standing.

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

But, his initial response to the agreement was lukewarm:

“Stopping a complicated and violent conflict such as the one in Ukraine requires an thorough discussion of serious and pragmatic ideas,” Rubio stated recently. “Furthermore, achieving a durable ceasefire will require each party to consent to difficult but essential compromises. That is why we are and will persist to create a list of potential solutions for resolving this war based on input from both sides of this conflict.”

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

“The Secretary did make a phone call to us this afternoon and I think he emphasized to us that we are the recipients of a proposal that was presented to one of our representatives,” stated Rounds. “It is not our recommendation, it is not our peace plan.”

Rubio moved quickly to align himself. “The peace proposal was authored by the US,” he later wrote. “It is offered as a solid framework for ongoing discussions. It is based on input from the Moscow. But, it is also based on previous and current contributions from Ukraine.”