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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. His strong relationship with Vice President Vance has placed a close associate of the Eurosceptic vice-president at the center of President Trump's recent push to settle the conflict.

Prior to his last week's trip to Kyiv, Driscoll was unrecognized as a negotiator or statesman, and his early efforts to promote the agreement to European policymakers were described as turbulent.

His close relationship with Vance, who he studied and shares a personal bond, signal the resurgence of the isolationist VP in negotiations to resolve the Ukraine crisis.

Vance's Involvement in Peace Efforts

This was Vance who intervened during Ukraine's president's rocky first visit to the White House in March and insisted 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 described as a surrender.

Following a tumultuous first year in power, international decisions in the White House are reportedly shaped by a small group of Trump's top aides, including top aide Susie Wiles, rightwing adviser Stephen Miller, diplomat Steve Witkoff, secretary of state Marco Rubio, and finally Vance.

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

“All criticism of the peace framework the White House is developing either misinterprets the proposal or misstates some critical reality on the ground,” the VP wrote.

Initial Efforts and EU Responses

Vance's initial attempts at negotiating a peace deal with Russia, while also attempting to renew relations with Moscow, were unsuccessful and left his team feeling frustrated with their Russian interlocutors. European officials, meanwhile, were angered by his initial speeches, in which he accused 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 mirrored his stances, and he has been one of the most assertive advocates for the deal in the government, 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 argued that a ceasefire agreement would have to establish a truce that honored Ukrainian sovereignty, be agreeable to both sides, and prevent the conflict from resuming.

“A ceasefire won’t be made by unsuccessful diplomats or politicians living in a fantasy land,” he continued. “An agreement might be made by intelligent people operating in the real world.”

It was Vance who followed up on the presentation of the ceasefire proposal in a conversation with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had mainly tasked his team with securing a agreement on the peace deal prior to Thanksgiving this week in the United States.

The Secretary of State's Response and Internal Doubts

Vance's stance was a notably more enthusiastic support of the proposal than that given by the top diplomat and national security adviser, Marco Rubio, a more conventional hawk in the administration who has transitioned from a shaky position inside the administration to more stable standing.

Rubio was part of a US team that went to Geneva this past weekend to meet with Ukrainian officials to help refine the original 28-point peace plan in order to make it more acceptable to leaders in Kyiv.

But, his first reaction to the agreement was tepid:

“Stopping a complex and violent conflict such as the one in Ukraine demands an thorough exchange of serious and realistic ideas,” Rubio wrote over the weekend. “Furthermore, securing a durable peace will necessitate both sides to agree to difficult but necessary compromises. That is why we are and will continue to develop a list of possible solutions for resolving this war drawing from 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 said recently at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had contacted lawmakers to clarify that the agreement was just a initial proposal from the Russians and not an initiative pushed by the administration.

“Rubio made 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 representatives,” stated Rounds. “It is not our suggestion, it is not our peace plan.”

Rubio acted swiftly to fall in line. “The peace proposal was authored by the US,” he subsequently wrote. “The framework is offered as a solid framework for ongoing negotiations. The proposal is derived from feedback from the Russian side. But, it is also informed by previous and ongoing input from Ukraine.”