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The US Army Secretary, Daniel Driscoll, emerged as an unlikely envoy for the Trump administration latest proposal to resolve the conflict in Ukraine. His strong relationship with JD Vance has placed a key ally of the Eurosceptic VP at the forefront of Donald Trump recent effort to settle the conflict.

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

Driscoll's close ties with Vance, who he attended Yale and maintains a personal bond, indicate the resurgence of the non-interventionist VP in talks to resolve the Ukraine crisis.

Vance's Involvement in Ceasefire Negotiations

This was Vance who intervened during Volodymyr Zelenskyy disastrous initial trip to the Trump White House in March and demanded he show Trump more respect. Now, Ukraine is once again resisting demands from the US to agree to a swift deal that Ukrainian leaders have described as a capitulation.

After a tumultuous first year in power, international actions in the White House are said to be shaped by a handful of Trump's key aides, such as chief of staff Susie Wiles, rightwing advisor 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 crafted by Witkoff and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, alongside the Russian diplomat Kirill Dmitriev.

“All objection of the ceasefire plan the administration is working on either misinterprets the proposal or misrepresents some key situation on the ground,” the VP stated.

Early Efforts and European Reactions

Vance's early attempts at negotiating a peace deal with Russia, while simultaneously seeking to renew relations with Moscow, were unsuccessful and left his camp feeling frustrated with their Russian counterparts. European officials, meanwhile, were angered by his initial speeches, in which he accused them of running from their voters, who Vance claimed held anti-immigration and right-leaning positions similar to those of Trump's own constituency.

But, the recently published ceasefire proposal mirrored his stances, and he has been one of the most assertive advocates for the agreement in the administration, even as the US has been under fire for accepting a ceasefire plan that mostly resembles Vladimir Putin's maximalist demands.

In social media updates this past weekend, Vance argued that a ceasefire agreement would have to establish a truce that respected Ukrainian sovereignty, be agreeable to both sides, and stop the war from restarting.

“Peace will not be made by unsuccessful negotiators or politicians residing in a dream world,” he added. “An agreement might be made by intelligent people operating in the real world.”

It was Vance who continued on the introduction of the ceasefire proposal in a conversation with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had primarily tasked his team with securing a agreement on the peace deal before Thanksgiving this week in the United States.

Rubio's Response and Private Concerns

Vance's stance was a distinctly more full-throated endorsement of the plan than that given by the secretary of state and national security adviser, Marco Rubio, a more conventional hawk in the administration who has transitioned from a shaky stature inside the White House to more stable footing.

Rubio was a member of a US team that went to Geneva this past weekend to confer with Ukrainian officials to help refine the initial 28-point peace plan in order to make it more palatable to authorities in Kyiv.

However, his initial reaction to the deal was lukewarm:

“Stopping a complicated and violent war such as the one in Ukraine demands an extensive discussion of serious and realistic ideas,” Rubio stated recently. “Furthermore, securing a lasting ceasefire will necessitate each party to consent to challenging but necessary compromises. That is why we are and will persist to create a set of possible ideas for resolving this war based on input from both sides of this war.”

In private, he was said to be much more doubtful of the plan. The Republican senator Mike Rounds stated recently at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had called legislators to clarify that the deal was just a initial proposal from the Russians and not an plan pushed by the White House.

“The Secretary made a call to us this afternoon and I believe 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. “This ceasefire plan was authored by the US,” he later stated. “The framework is offered as a solid framework for ongoing discussions. It is derived from feedback from the Moscow. But, it is also based on earlier and current contributions from Ukraine.”