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The US Army Secretary, Dan Driscoll, emerged as an unlikely envoy for the Trump administration latest proposal to end the Russian invasion in Ukraine. His close connection 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 not known as a mediator or diplomat, and his initial efforts to promote the agreement to officials in Europe were described as chaotic.

Driscoll's close relationship with Vance, with whom he studied and maintains a personal bond, signal the resurgence of the isolationist vice-president in talks to resolve the Ukraine crisis.

Vance's Involvement in Peace Efforts

This was Vance who stepped in during Volodymyr Zelenskyy disastrous initial trip to the Trump White House in March and insisted he show Trump more respect. Now, Ukraine is again resisting pressure from the US to agree to a swift deal that Ukrainian leaders have called a capitulation.

After a chaotic first year in power, foreign policy actions in the White House are said to be influenced by a small group of Trump's key aides, such as chief of staff Susie Wiles, rightwing adviser Stephen Miller, envoy Steve Witkoff, State Department head Marco Rubio, and of course Vance.

Vance has been a outspoken advocate of the latest proposal, which was crafted by Witkoff and Trump's relative Jared Kushner, alongside the Kremlin envoy Kirill Dmitriev.

“Every criticism of the ceasefire plan the White House is working on either misinterprets the proposal or misstates some critical situation on the ground,” Vance stated.

Early Attempts and European Reactions

Vance's early efforts at negotiating a peace deal with Russia, while simultaneously seeking to renew relations with Moscow, were fruitless and left his team feeling frustrated with their Russian counterparts. Leaders in Europe, in turn, were irritated by his early remarks, in which he accused them of ignoring their constituents, who Vance said held restrictionist and conservative views close to those of Trump's own constituency.

But, the recently published peace deal mirrored his positions, and he has been one of the most assertive advocates for the agreement in the government, even as the US has been under fire for endorsing a peace framework that mostly resembles Vladimir Putin's extreme demands.

In posts this weekend, Vance asserted that a ceasefire agreement would have to produce a ceasefire that honored Ukrainian independence, be acceptable to both sides, and prevent the war from restarting.

“A ceasefire will not be made by unsuccessful diplomats or officials residing in a dream world,” he continued. “An agreement might be made by intelligent people operating in the real world.”

Additionally, it was Vance who continued on the introduction of the ceasefire proposal in a phone call with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had mainly tasked his team with securing a agreement on the ceasefire accord before Thanksgiving this week in the United States.

The Secretary of State's Reaction and Internal Concerns

Vance's stance was a distinctly more enthusiastic endorsement of the proposal than that given by the top diplomat and national security adviser, Marco Rubio, a more traditional hardliner in the administration who has gone from a shaky position inside the administration to more firm standing.

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 ceasefire proposal in order to make it more palatable to authorities in Kyiv.

But, his initial reaction to the deal was lukewarm:

“Stopping a complicated and deadly conflict such as the one in Ukraine demands an extensive discussion of serious and pragmatic ideas,” Rubio stated over the weekend. “Furthermore, securing a durable ceasefire will necessitate both sides to agree to challenging but essential compromises. This is the reason we are and will continue to develop a list of possible ideas for resolving this conflict drawing from input from each party of this war.”

Behind closed doors, he was reportedly much more doubtful of the plan. The GOP lawmaker Mike Rounds said last week at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had called legislators to clarify that the agreement was merely a preliminary proposal from the Russians and not an initiative advocated by the administration.

“The Secretary did make a call to us this afternoon and I believe he made it very clear to us that we are the receivers of a offer that was presented to one of our representatives,” stated Rounds. “The document is not our suggestion, it is not our peace plan.”

Rubio moved quickly to fall in line. “The peace proposal was authored by the US,” he later wrote. “The framework is presented as a solid framework for continuing negotiations. The proposal is derived from feedback from the Moscow. But, it is additionally informed by previous and current contributions from Ukraine.”