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America's Secretary of the Army, Daniel Driscoll, emerged as an surprising envoy for the Trump administration latest proposal to end the Russian invasion in Ukraine. Driscoll's strong connection with JD Vance has placed a key ally of the Euroskeptic vice-president at the center of President Trump's recent effort to settle the conflict.

Before his recent visit to Kyiv, Driscoll was unrecognized as a mediator or statesman, and his initial attempts to sell the agreement to officials in Europe were labeled turbulent.

Driscoll's strong ties with Vance, with whom he attended Yale and maintains a close friendship, indicate the rising influence of the non-interventionist vice-president in talks to resolve the Ukraine war.

Vance's Role in Ceasefire Negotiations

This was Vance who stepped in during Volodymyr Zelenskyy disastrous first visit to the White House in March and insisted he show Trump more respect. Currently, Ukraine is once again resisting pressure from the US to accept a swift settlement that Ukrainian leaders have described as a capitulation.

After a chaotic initial year in power, foreign policy actions in the White House are said to be shaped by a small group of Trump's top aides, such as top aide Susie Wiles, rightwing adviser Stephen Miller, diplomat Steve Witkoff, secretary of state Marco Rubio, and of course Vance.

Vance has been a outspoken advocate of the recent proposal, which was developed by Witkoff and Trump's relative Jared Kushner, alongside the Russian diplomat Kirill Dmitriev.

“Every criticism of the ceasefire plan the administration is developing either misinterprets the proposal or misstates some critical situation on the ground,” the VP stated.

Initial Attempts and EU Responses

Vance's initial attempts at hammering out a peace deal with Russia, while simultaneously attempting to renew relations with Moscow, were unsuccessful and left his team feeling disappointed with their Russian interlocutors. European officials, meanwhile, were angered by his initial speeches, in which he charged them of ignoring their constituents, who Vance claimed held restrictionist and conservative views similar to those of Trump's own supporters.

However, the recently published peace deal mirrored his positions, and he has been one of the most assertive advocates for the deal in the administration, even as the US has been under fire for endorsing a ceasefire plan that mostly resembles Vladimir Putin's maximalist terms.

In social media updates this past weekend, Vance argued that a peace deal would have to establish a ceasefire that honored Ukrainian independence, be acceptable to each party, and prevent the conflict from restarting.

“Peace will not be made by unsuccessful diplomats or officials living in a fantasy land,” he added. “It might be made by smart people living in the actual situation.”

Additionally, it was Vance who continued on the presentation of the peace plan in a conversation with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had primarily tasked his staff with obtaining a agreement on the peace deal prior to Thanksgiving this Thursday in the United States.

Rubio's Reaction and Internal Concerns

Vance's stance was a notably more enthusiastic support of the plan than that expressed by the top diplomat and security advisor, Marco Rubio, a more conventional hawk in the administration who has gone from a shaky position inside the White House to more stable footing.

Rubio was part of a US team that traveled to Geneva this weekend to meet with Ukrainian officials to help moderate the original 28-point peace plan in order to make it more palatable to authorities in Kyiv.

But, his first reaction to the agreement was lukewarm:

“Stopping a complicated and violent war such as the one in Ukraine demands an extensive discussion of substantive and realistic ideas,” Rubio wrote over the weekend. “And, achieving a lasting peace will require both sides to agree to challenging but essential concessions. This is the reason we are and will persist to develop a list of potential ideas for resolving this conflict drawing from feedback from both sides of this conflict.”

Behind closed doors, he was said to be much more skeptical of the plan. The Republican senator Mike Rounds stated recently 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 pushed by the White House.

“Rubio made a call to us this afternoon and I believe he emphasized to us that we are the recipients of a offer that was delivered to one of our officials,” stated Rounds. “The document is not our recommendation, it is not our ceasefire proposal.”

Rubio moved quickly to align himself. “This ceasefire plan was authored by the US,” he later stated. “The framework is presented as a solid structure for ongoing discussions. The proposal is based on feedback from the Moscow. However, it is additionally based on previous and ongoing input from Ukraine.”