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The US Secretary of the Army, Daniel Driscoll, emerged as an surprising envoy for the Trump administration newest initiative to resolve the Russian invasion in Ukraine. His strong connection with Vice President Vance has positioned a key ally of the Eurosceptic VP at the center of Donald Trump latest push to conclude the war.

Prior to his recent trip to Kyiv, Driscoll was unrecognized as a negotiator or diplomat, and his early efforts to promote the agreement to European policymakers were labeled turbulent.

Driscoll's close ties with Vance, who he studied and shares a personal bond, indicate the rising influence of the isolationist VP in talks to resolve the Ukraine crisis.

The VP's Role in Peace Efforts

This was Vance who intervened during Ukraine's president's disastrous first trip to the Trump White House in March and insisted he show Trump more courtesy. Currently, Ukraine is again resisting demands from the US to agree to a quick settlement that local officials have called a capitulation.

Following a chaotic first year in office, international actions in the White House are said to be shaped by a small group of Trump's key advisers, such as top aide Susie Wiles, rightwing advisor Stephen Miller, envoy Steve Witkoff, State Department head Marco Rubio, and finally Vance.

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

“Every objection of the peace framework the White House is working on either misunderstands the framework or misstates some key reality on the ground,” Vance stated.

Early 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 camp feeling frustrated with their Russian counterparts. Leaders in Europe, meanwhile, were angered by his early remarks, in which he charged them of running from their voters, who Vance said held restrictionist and right-leaning views similar to those of Trump's own supporters.

However, the new peace deal closely resembled his positions, and he has been one of the most forceful advocates for the deal in the government, even as the US has been under fire for endorsing a peace framework that mostly echoes Vladimir Putin's extreme demands.

In posts this past weekend, Vance argued that a ceasefire agreement would have to establish a truce that respected Ukrainian independence, be acceptable to both sides, and stop the conflict from restarting.

“Peace won’t be made by failed diplomats or politicians living in a dream world,” he added. “It could be made by smart people operating in the real world.”

Additionally, it was Vance who followed up on the presentation of the ceasefire proposal in a conversation with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had primarily instructed his team with securing a signature on the ceasefire accord before Thanksgiving this week 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 traditional hardliner in the administration who has transitioned from a uncertain position inside the White House to more stable standing.

Rubio was part of a US delegation that traveled to Geneva this past weekend to confer with Ukrainian leaders to help moderate the initial 28-point peace plan in order to make it more palatable to leaders in Kyiv.

But, his first response to the deal was tepid:

“Stopping a complex and violent war such as the one in Ukraine requires an extensive discussion of substantive and realistic ideas,” Rubio stated recently. “Furthermore, securing a lasting peace will require each party to agree to difficult but necessary concessions. This is the reason we are and will continue to develop a set of possible solutions for ending this war based on input 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 contacted lawmakers to explain that the deal was just a initial offer from the Russians and not an initiative pushed by the administration.

“The Secretary did make a call to us this day and I believe he emphasized to us that we are the receivers of a offer that was presented to one of our officials,” said Rounds. “The document is not our suggestion, it is not our peace plan.”

Rubio acted swiftly to align himself. “The peace proposal was written by the US,” he later wrote. “The framework is offered as a solid structure for ongoing negotiations. It is derived from input from the Moscow. However, it is additionally based on previous and ongoing input from Ukraine.”