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America's Army Secretary, Dan Driscoll, emerged as an unlikely envoy for the White House's newest initiative to end the Russian invasion in Ukraine. Driscoll's close relationship with JD Vance has positioned a key ally of the Eurosceptic vice-president at the forefront of Donald Trump recent push to settle the war.

Before his recent trip to Kyiv, Driscoll was unrecognized as a negotiator or diplomat, and his early efforts to promote the agreement to officials in Europe were described as turbulent.

His strong ties with Vance, with whom he attended Yale and maintains a close friendship, signal the rising influence of the non-interventionist vice-president in negotiations to resolve the Ukraine crisis.

Vance's Involvement in Peace Efforts

It was Vance who stepped in during Ukraine's president's disastrous first visit to the Trump White House in March and demanded he show Trump more courtesy. Currently, Ukraine is once again resisting pressure from the US to agree to a swift deal that local officials have called a capitulation.

Following a tumultuous first year in power, foreign policy decisions in the White House are said to be shaped by a handful of Trump's key aides, such as top aide Susie Wiles, rightwing adviser Stephen Miller, diplomat Steve Witkoff, secretary of state Marco Rubio, and finally Vance.

Vance has been a outspoken advocate of the latest plan, which was developed by Witkoff and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, alongside the Russian diplomat Kirill Dmitriev.

“All objection of the peace framework the White House is developing either misunderstands the framework or misrepresents some key reality on the ground,” Vance stated.

Initial Attempts and European Responses

Vance's initial efforts at hammering out 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, meanwhile, were angered by his early speeches, in which he charged them of ignoring their voters, who Vance said held restrictionist and conservative positions similar to those of Trump's own supporters.

However, the recently published peace deal mirrored his stances, and he has been one of the most forceful spokespeople for the agreement in the administration, even as the US has been criticized for accepting a peace framework that largely resembles Vladimir Putin's extreme terms.

In posts this past weekend, Vance asserted that a ceasefire agreement would have to produce a truce that respected Ukrainian independence, be acceptable to both sides, and prevent the conflict from resuming.

“A ceasefire won’t be made by unsuccessful negotiators or officials living in a dream world,” he continued. “It might be made by intelligent people living in the real world.”

It was Vance who continued on the introduction of the peace plan in a conversation with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had primarily tasked his team with securing a signature on the peace deal before Thanksgiving this Thursday in the United States.

Rubio's Reaction and Private Concerns

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

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

But, his initial response to the agreement was lukewarm:

“Ending a complex and deadly conflict such as the one in Ukraine requires an extensive exchange of serious and realistic proposals,” Rubio stated over the weekend. “And, achieving a lasting peace will require each party to consent to challenging but necessary compromises. That is why we are and will continue to create a set of potential ideas for resolving this war based on feedback from both sides of this conflict.”

In private, he was said to be much more skeptical 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 agreement was merely a preliminary offer from the Russians and not an plan pushed by the administration.

“Rubio made a call to us this day 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,” said Rounds. “The document is not our suggestion, it is not our ceasefire proposal.”

Rubio acted swiftly to align himself. “This ceasefire plan was authored by the US,” he subsequently wrote. “It is offered as a solid structure for ongoing negotiations. It is based on input from the Moscow. However, it is additionally informed by earlier and ongoing contributions from Ukraine.”