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America's Secretary of the Army, Dan Driscoll, emerged as an unlikely envoy for the White House's latest initiative to end the conflict in Ukraine. His strong relationship with Vice President Vance has placed a close associate of the Eurosceptic vice-president at the center of President Trump's latest push to settle the war.

Prior to his recent trip to Kyiv, Driscoll was unrecognized as a mediator or statesman, and his early attempts to promote the agreement to European policymakers were described as chaotic.

His strong ties with Vance, who he studied and maintains a personal bond, signal the resurgence of the isolationist vice-president in negotiations to resolve the Ukraine war.

Vance's Role in Peace Efforts

This was Vance who stepped in during Ukraine's president's rocky initial trip to the White House in March and demanded he show Trump more courtesy. Now, Ukraine is again pushing back against pressure from the US to accept a quick deal that Ukrainian leaders have described as a surrender.

After a tumultuous initial year in power, international actions in the White House are reportedly influenced by a small group of Trump's top aides, including top aide 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 recent plan, which was crafted by Witkoff and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, alongside the Kremlin envoy Kirill Dmitriev.

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

Initial Attempts and European Responses

Vance's early efforts at negotiating a ceasefire agreement with Russia, while simultaneously seeking to renew relations with Moscow, were fruitless and left his team feeling disappointed with their Russian interlocutors. European officials, in turn, were angered by his initial remarks, in which he accused them of running from their constituents, who Vance said held anti-immigration and right-leaning views close to those of Trump's own constituency.

However, the recently published ceasefire proposal closely resembled his positions, and he has been one of the most forceful advocates for the deal in the government, even as the US has been criticized for endorsing a peace framework that mostly resembles Vladimir Putin's extreme demands.

In social media updates this past weekend, Vance asserted that a ceasefire agreement would have to produce a ceasefire that honored Ukrainian sovereignty, be agreeable to each party, and prevent the conflict from restarting.

“Peace will not be made by failed negotiators or politicians living in a dream world,” he added. “An agreement might be made by smart people operating in the actual situation.”

Additionally, it was Vance who continued on the introduction 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 before Thanksgiving this week in the United States.

The Secretary of State's Response and Internal Concerns

That was a distinctly more full-throated endorsement of the plan than that expressed by the secretary of state and national security adviser, Marco Rubio, a more traditional hardliner in the government who has gone from a uncertain position inside the administration to more stable standing.

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

However, his initial response to the agreement was tepid:

“Stopping a complicated and deadly war such as the one in Ukraine requires an thorough exchange of serious and realistic ideas,” Rubio stated over the weekend. “And, securing a lasting peace will necessitate both sides to consent to difficult but necessary compromises. This is the reason we are and will persist to create a list of potential solutions for resolving this conflict drawing from feedback from both sides of this conflict.”

In private, he was said to be much more skeptical of the plan. The GOP lawmaker Mike Rounds stated recently at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had contacted lawmakers to clarify that the agreement was just a preliminary proposal from the Russians and not an initiative advocated by the administration.

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

Rubio moved quickly to fall in line. “The peace proposal was written by the US,” he later wrote. “It is presented as a strong structure for ongoing discussions. The proposal is derived from feedback from the Moscow. However, it is additionally based on previous and current contributions from Ukraine.”