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America's Secretary of the Army, Daniel Driscoll, was an unlikely envoy for the Trump administration newest proposal to resolve the conflict in Ukraine. His close connection with Vice President Vance has positioned a key ally of the Euroskeptic VP at the center of President Trump's recent push to settle the war.

Before his last week's trip to Kyiv, Driscoll was unrecognized as a mediator or diplomat, and his early efforts to promote the deal to officials in Europe were described as chaotic.

His close relationship with Vance, with whom he studied and shares a close friendship, indicate the resurgence of the non-interventionist vice-president in negotiations to end the Ukraine crisis.

Vance's Role in Peace Negotiations

This was Vance who stepped in during Volodymyr Zelenskyy disastrous first trip to the White House in March and demanded he show Trump more courtesy. Now, Ukraine is once again resisting demands from the US to accept a swift settlement that local officials have described as a capitulation.

Following a tumultuous initial year in power, international decisions in the White House are said to be influenced by a small group of Trump's top advisers, such as top aide Susie Wiles, conservative adviser Stephen Miller, diplomat 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 relative Jared Kushner, alongside the Russian diplomat Kirill Dmitriev.

“All objection of the peace framework the White House is developing either misinterprets the framework or misrepresents some critical reality on the ground,” the VP stated.

Early Attempts and EU Reactions

Vance's initial efforts at hammering out a peace deal with Russia, while simultaneously attempting to renew ties with Moscow, were unsuccessful and left his team feeling disappointed with their Russian counterparts. Leaders in Europe, meanwhile, were angered by his initial remarks, in which he accused them of running from their voters, who Vance said held restrictionist and conservative views similar to those of Trump's own constituency.

However, the new ceasefire proposal mirrored his positions, and he has been one of the most assertive spokespeople for the agreement in the administration, even as the US has been under fire for endorsing a ceasefire plan that mostly echoes Vladimir Putin's extreme demands.

In social media updates this weekend, Vance argued that a ceasefire agreement would have to produce a ceasefire that respected Ukrainian independence, be agreeable to each party, and prevent the war from resuming.

“A ceasefire will not be made by failed diplomats or officials residing in a dream world,” he added. “An agreement could be made by intelligent people operating in the actual situation.”

Additionally, it was Vance who continued on the presentation of the peace plan in a conversation with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had primarily 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 Doubts

Vance's stance was a distinctly more full-throated endorsement of the proposal than that expressed by the top diplomat and national security adviser, Marco Rubio, a more conventional hawk in the administration who has transitioned from a uncertain position inside the administration to more firm standing.

Rubio was a member of a US team that traveled to Geneva this past weekend to meet with Ukrainian officials to help refine the original 28-point ceasefire proposal in order to make it more palatable to leaders in Kyiv.

But, his initial reaction to the deal was lukewarm:

“Ending a complex and violent war such as the one in Ukraine requires an thorough exchange of serious and pragmatic ideas,” Rubio wrote recently. “And, achieving a lasting peace will necessitate each party to consent to difficult but essential concessions. This is the reason we are and will continue to create a list of potential solutions for ending this war drawing from feedback from both sides of this war.”

In private, he was reportedly 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 called lawmakers to clarify that the deal was just a preliminary offer from the Russians and not an plan pushed by the White House.

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

Rubio acted swiftly to fall in line. “This ceasefire plan was written by the US,” he subsequently stated. “It is offered as a solid structure for continuing negotiations. It is based on feedback from the Russian side. However, it is also based on earlier and current input from Ukraine.”