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The US Army Secretary, Dan Driscoll, emerged as an surprising envoy for the Trump administration newest proposal to end the conflict in Ukraine. His close relationship with JD Vance has placed a close associate of the Euroskeptic vice-president at the center of Donald Trump recent effort to conclude the conflict.

Before his recent trip to Kyiv, Driscoll was unrecognized as a mediator or diplomat, and his initial attempts to promote the agreement to European policymakers were labeled chaotic.

His strong relationship with Vance, with whom he attended Yale and shares a close friendship, indicate the rising influence of the isolationist vice-president in negotiations to end the Ukraine crisis.

Vance's Role in Peace Efforts

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

Following a chaotic first year in power, international decisions in the White House are reportedly influenced by a small group of Trump's top aides, such as top aide Susie Wiles, rightwing adviser Stephen Miller, diplomat Steve Witkoff, State Department head Marco Rubio, and finally Vance.

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

“All objection of the peace framework the administration is developing either misunderstands the proposal or misrepresents some critical situation on the ground,” the VP stated.

Early Efforts and European Reactions

Vance's initial attempts at hammering out a ceasefire agreement with Russia, while also attempting to renew ties with Moscow, were fruitless and left his team feeling disappointed with their Russian counterparts. European officials, in turn, were irritated by his early remarks, in which he accused them of ignoring their voters, who Vance claimed held restrictionist and conservative views similar to those of Trump's own constituency.

However, the new ceasefire proposal closely resembled his stances, and he has been one of the most assertive spokespeople for the deal in the government, even as the US has been under fire for endorsing a peace framework that largely echoes Vladimir Putin's extreme demands.

In posts this weekend, Vance argued that a ceasefire agreement would have to produce a truce that honored Ukrainian independence, be agreeable to both sides, and prevent the war from restarting.

“A ceasefire won’t be made by unsuccessful diplomats or officials living in a dream world,” he added. “It might be made by smart people living in the actual situation.”

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

The Secretary of State's Response and Internal Concerns

Vance's stance was a notably more enthusiastic endorsement of the plan than that expressed by the top diplomat and security advisor, Marco Rubio, a more traditional hardliner in the government who has transitioned from a shaky stature inside the administration to more stable standing.

Rubio was part of a US delegation that went to Geneva this past weekend to meet with Ukrainian leaders to help moderate the initial 28-point ceasefire proposal in order to make it more acceptable to authorities in Kyiv.

However, his initial reaction to the agreement was tepid:

“Stopping a complicated and violent war such as the one in Ukraine requires an thorough exchange of serious and pragmatic ideas,” Rubio wrote over the weekend. “And, achieving a durable ceasefire will necessitate each party to agree to challenging but necessary concessions. This is the reason we are and will persist to develop a set of possible solutions for ending this conflict drawing from input from both sides of this war.”

In private, he was reportedly much more skeptical of the plan. The GOP lawmaker Mike Rounds said last week at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had contacted lawmakers to explain that the agreement was just a preliminary proposal from the Russians and not an plan advocated by the White House.

“Rubio did make a call to us this afternoon and I believe he made it very clear to us that we are the recipients of a proposal 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. “The peace proposal was written by the US,” he later stated. “The framework is presented as a solid framework for continuing negotiations. The proposal is based on feedback from the Russian side. But, it is additionally informed by earlier and current contributions from Ukraine.”