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America's Army Secretary, Daniel Driscoll, was an unlikely envoy for the Trump administration latest initiative to end the Russian invasion in Ukraine. His close connection with JD Vance has positioned a key ally of the Euroskeptic VP at the forefront of President Trump's latest push to conclude the conflict.

Before his recent visit to Kyiv, Driscoll was unrecognized as a negotiator or diplomat, and his early efforts to promote the deal to officials in Europe were labeled chaotic.

Driscoll's strong relationship with Vance, who he attended Yale and shares a close friendship, indicate the rising influence of the non-interventionist VP in negotiations to end the Ukraine war.

Vance's Role in Ceasefire Efforts

It was Vance who stepped in during Ukraine's president's rocky initial visit to the Trump White House in March and demanded he show Trump more respect. Currently, Ukraine is again pushing back against pressure from the US to agree to a swift deal that local officials have called a surrender.

After a chaotic initial year in power, foreign policy decisions in the White House are reportedly shaped by a small group of Trump's top advisers, such as chief of staff Susie Wiles, conservative adviser Stephen Miller, diplomat Steve Witkoff, State Department head Marco Rubio, and of course Vance.

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

“Every objection of the ceasefire plan the administration is working on either misunderstands the proposal or misstates some key reality on the ground,” the VP wrote.

Early Efforts and EU Reactions

Vance's early attempts at negotiating a ceasefire agreement with Russia, while also seeking to renew relations with Moscow, were fruitless and left his camp feeling frustrated with their Russian counterparts. European officials, in turn, were irritated by his initial remarks, in which he charged them of running from their constituents, who Vance claimed held restrictionist 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 ceasefire plan that mostly resembles Vladimir Putin's maximalist terms.

In posts this weekend, Vance asserted that a peace deal would have to produce a truce that respected Ukrainian independence, be agreeable to each party, and prevent the conflict from restarting.

“A ceasefire won’t be made by unsuccessful negotiators or officials residing in a dream world,” he continued. “It could be made by intelligent people operating in the actual situation.”

Additionally, it was Vance who followed up on the introduction of the peace plan in a conversation with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had mainly tasked his staff with obtaining a signature on the ceasefire accord before Thanksgiving this week in the United States.

The Secretary of State's Reaction and Private Concerns

That was a notably more full-throated endorsement of the plan than that given by the secretary of state and national security adviser, Marco Rubio, a more conventional hardliner in the administration who has transitioned from a uncertain position inside the administration to more stable footing.

Rubio was part of a US team that went to Geneva this weekend to meet with Ukrainian leaders 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 deal was tepid:

“Stopping a complex and violent war such as the one in Ukraine requires an extensive exchange of serious and pragmatic ideas,” Rubio wrote recently. “And, achieving a lasting peace will require both sides to agree to difficult but essential concessions. This is the reason we are and will continue to develop a list of possible ideas for ending this conflict based on feedback from both sides of this war.”

Behind closed doors, he was said to be much more doubtful of the proposal. The Republican senator Mike Rounds stated last week at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had contacted legislators to explain that the deal was just a initial offer from the Russians and not an initiative advocated by the administration.

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

Rubio moved quickly to fall in line. “This ceasefire plan was authored by the US,” he later stated. “It is presented as a solid framework for continuing discussions. It is based on input from the Russian side. However, it is additionally based on earlier and ongoing input from Ukraine.”