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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 Russian invasion in Ukraine. Driscoll's strong relationship with Vice President Vance has positioned a key ally of the Euroskeptic VP at the center of President Trump's latest push to settle the war.

Prior to his recent trip to Kyiv, Driscoll was not known as a mediator or diplomat, and his early attempts to sell the agreement to European policymakers were described as chaotic.

Driscoll's close relationship with Vance, with whom he attended Yale and maintains a personal bond, signal the rising influence of the isolationist vice-president in talks to end the Ukraine crisis.

Vance's Involvement in Peace Efforts

It was Vance who intervened during Volodymyr Zelenskyy disastrous initial visit to the Trump White House in March and demanded he show Trump more courtesy. Now, Ukraine is again pushing back against demands from the US to agree to a swift deal that local officials have described as a capitulation.

After a tumultuous initial year in power, international actions in the White House are said to be influenced by a handful of Trump's top advisers, including chief of staff Susie Wiles, conservative advisor Stephen Miller, envoy Steve Witkoff, secretary of state Marco Rubio, and of course Vance.

Vance has been a vocal supporter of the recent 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 White House is working on either misinterprets the framework or misrepresents some critical situation on the ground,” Vance wrote.

Initial Efforts and EU Responses

Vance's initial attempts at negotiating a ceasefire agreement with Russia, while also seeking to renew ties with Moscow, were fruitless and left his team feeling frustrated with their Russian counterparts. European officials, meanwhile, were irritated by his early speeches, in which he charged them of ignoring their constituents, who Vance said held anti-immigration and right-leaning positions close to those of Trump's own constituency.

But, the new peace deal closely resembled his positions, and he has been one of the most forceful advocates for the agreement in the government, even as the US has been under fire for accepting a ceasefire plan that largely echoes Vladimir Putin's extreme terms.

In posts this past weekend, Vance asserted that a ceasefire agreement would have to establish a truce that honored Ukrainian sovereignty, be acceptable to each party, and stop the war from resuming.

“Peace will not 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 continued on the introduction of the ceasefire proposal in a phone call 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 Private Concerns

That was a distinctly more enthusiastic support of the plan than that given by the secretary of state and security advisor, Marco Rubio, a more conventional hawk in the administration who has transitioned from a shaky stature inside the White House to more firm footing.

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

But, his first reaction to the deal was tepid:

“Ending a complicated and violent war such as the one in Ukraine requires an thorough discussion of serious and pragmatic proposals,” Rubio wrote recently. “Furthermore, securing a lasting ceasefire will necessitate each party to consent to challenging but essential compromises. That is why we are and will persist to create a set of potential solutions for ending this war based on input from each party of this conflict.”

Behind closed doors, he was reportedly much more skeptical of the proposal. The GOP lawmaker Mike Rounds stated last week at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had called legislators to clarify that the agreement was just a initial proposal from the Russians and not an initiative advocated by the White House.

“The Secretary made a phone call to us this afternoon and I think he made it very clear 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 ceasefire proposal.”

Rubio acted swiftly to align himself. “This ceasefire plan was written by the US,” he subsequently stated. “The framework is presented as a solid structure for ongoing negotiations. The proposal is derived from feedback from the Moscow. But, it is additionally based on earlier and ongoing contributions from Ukraine.”