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The US Army Secretary, Daniel Driscoll, emerged as an unlikely envoy for the Trump administration newest initiative to end the Russian invasion in Ukraine. Driscoll's close connection with JD Vance has positioned a close associate of the Euroskeptic VP at the center of President Trump's recent effort to conclude the war.

Prior to his last week's trip to Kyiv, Driscoll was unrecognized as a mediator or statesman, and his early attempts to sell the deal to European policymakers were labeled chaotic.

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

The VP's Role in Ceasefire Negotiations

It was Vance who intervened during Ukraine's president's disastrous initial visit to the Trump White House in March and insisted he show Trump more respect. Now, Ukraine is once again resisting pressure from the US to accept a swift settlement that local officials have called a surrender.

After a tumultuous first year in office, foreign policy decisions in the White House are reportedly influenced by a handful of Trump's key aides, including chief of staff Susie Wiles, conservative advisor Stephen Miller, envoy Steve Witkoff, State Department head Marco Rubio, and of course Vance.

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

“Every criticism of the ceasefire plan the administration is working on either misinterprets the framework or misstates some key reality on the ground,” the VP stated.

Early Attempts and EU Reactions

Vance's initial efforts at negotiating a ceasefire agreement with Russia, while also seeking to renew relations with Moscow, were fruitless and left his team feeling frustrated with their Russian counterparts. European officials, in turn, 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 supporters.

However, the recently published ceasefire proposal closely resembled his positions, and he has been one of the most forceful spokespeople for the agreement in the government, even as the US has been under fire for endorsing a peace framework that mostly resembles Vladimir Putin's extreme demands.

In posts this past weekend, Vance asserted that a peace deal would have to produce a truce that respected Ukrainian sovereignty, be acceptable to both sides, and prevent the war from restarting.

“Peace will not be made by failed negotiators or officials residing in a dream world,” he continued. “It might be made by smart people living in the real world.”

Additionally, it was Vance who continued on the introduction of the peace plan in a phone call with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had mainly instructed his team with securing a signature on the peace deal prior to Thanksgiving this Thursday in the United States.

Rubio's Response and Internal Doubts

That was a notably more enthusiastic endorsement of the plan than that given by the top diplomat and security advisor, Marco Rubio, a more traditional hardliner in the government who has gone from a shaky position inside the White House to more firm footing.

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

But, his initial reaction to the deal was tepid:

“Stopping a complex and deadly war such as the one in Ukraine requires an thorough exchange of substantive and pragmatic ideas,” Rubio stated recently. “Furthermore, achieving a durable peace will necessitate both sides to agree to difficult but essential compromises. This is the reason we are and will persist to develop a set of possible ideas for resolving this war based on feedback from both sides 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 contacted legislators to explain that the deal was merely a initial offer from the Russians and not an initiative pushed by the White House.

“Rubio did make 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 delivered to one of our representatives,” stated Rounds. “It is not our recommendation, it is not our ceasefire proposal.”

Rubio moved quickly to align himself. “The peace proposal was written by the US,” he subsequently stated. “The framework is offered as a strong framework for continuing negotiations. The proposal is derived from feedback from the Russian side. But, it is also based on earlier and ongoing input from Ukraine.”