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America's Army Secretary, Dan Driscoll, emerged as an surprising envoy for the Trump administration newest proposal to end the conflict in Ukraine. Driscoll's strong relationship with Vice President Vance has positioned a key ally of the Eurosceptic vice-president at the center of President Trump's latest effort to settle the war.

Before his recent trip to Kyiv, Driscoll was not known as a negotiator or diplomat, and his initial efforts to promote the agreement to officials in Europe were labeled turbulent.

Driscoll's close ties with Vance, who he studied and maintains a personal bond, indicate the rising influence of the isolationist vice-president in negotiations to resolve the Ukraine crisis.

Vance's Involvement in Peace Negotiations

This was Vance who intervened during Volodymyr Zelenskyy disastrous initial trip to the White House in March and insisted he show Trump more courtesy. Currently, Ukraine is again pushing back against pressure from the US to agree to a swift settlement that Ukrainian leaders have described as a capitulation.

Following a tumultuous first year in power, foreign policy actions in the White House are reportedly shaped by a handful 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 finally Vance.

Vance has been a outspoken supporter of the recent proposal, which was crafted by Witkoff and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, alongside the Kremlin envoy Kirill Dmitriev.

“Every objection of the peace framework the administration is developing either misinterprets the proposal or misrepresents some key situation on the ground,” Vance stated.

Early Efforts and EU Reactions

Vance's initial attempts at hammering out a peace deal with Russia, while also attempting to renew ties with Moscow, were fruitless and left his team feeling frustrated with their Russian counterparts. Leaders in Europe, meanwhile, were irritated by his initial remarks, in which he charged them of ignoring their constituents, who Vance said held anti-immigration and conservative views similar to those of Trump's own constituency.

But, the new peace deal mirrored his stances, and he has been one of the most forceful spokespeople for the agreement in the government, even as the US has been criticized for accepting a ceasefire plan that largely echoes Vladimir Putin's maximalist terms.

In posts this weekend, Vance argued that a ceasefire agreement would have to establish a truce that respected Ukrainian independence, be agreeable to both sides, and stop the conflict from resuming.

“Peace will not be made by failed diplomats or officials living in a fantasy land,” he added. “It could be made by smart people living in the real world.”

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 ceasefire accord prior to Thanksgiving this Thursday in the United States.

Rubio's Response and Private Doubts

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 hardliner in the government who has transitioned from a shaky stature inside the administration to more firm footing.

Rubio was a member of a US team that traveled to Geneva this 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.

However, his first response to the agreement was tepid:

“Ending a complex and deadly conflict such as the one in Ukraine requires an thorough discussion of substantive and pragmatic proposals,” Rubio stated recently. “And, securing a lasting ceasefire will require each party to consent to difficult but necessary concessions. That is why we are and will continue to develop a set of possible solutions for resolving this war based on feedback from each party of this conflict.”

Behind closed doors, he was said to be much more skeptical of the proposal. The GOP lawmaker Mike Rounds said recently at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had called lawmakers to clarify that the agreement was just a initial proposal from the Russians and not an plan pushed by the administration.

“Rubio did make a phone call to us this afternoon and I think 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 ceasefire proposal.”

Rubio acted swiftly to align himself. “This ceasefire plan was written by the US,” he subsequently wrote. “It is presented as a solid framework for ongoing negotiations. It is based on feedback from the Russian side. But, it is also informed by previous and current contributions from Ukraine.”