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America's Secretary of the Army, Dan Driscoll, was an surprising envoy for the White House's newest initiative to resolve the Russian invasion in Ukraine. Driscoll's close relationship with Vice President Vance has positioned a close associate of the Euroskeptic VP at the forefront of Donald Trump latest push to settle the war.

Prior to 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 turbulent.

Driscoll's strong relationship with Vance, with whom he studied and maintains a personal bond, indicate the resurgence of the non-interventionist VP in talks to resolve the Ukraine war.

Vance's Role in Peace Negotiations

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

Following a chaotic initial year in office, international decisions in the White House are reportedly influenced by a small group of Trump's key aides, such as chief of staff Susie Wiles, rightwing adviser Stephen Miller, envoy Steve Witkoff, secretary of state Marco Rubio, and of course Vance.

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

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

Initial Efforts and European Reactions

Vance's early attempts at negotiating a peace deal with Russia, while simultaneously seeking to restore relations with Moscow, were unsuccessful and left his team feeling disappointed with their Russian counterparts. Leaders in Europe, meanwhile, were irritated by his early remarks, in which he charged them of running from their voters, who Vance claimed held anti-immigration and right-leaning positions close to those of Trump's own supporters.

But, the new ceasefire proposal mirrored his stances, and he has been one of the most assertive spokespeople for the agreement in the government, even as the US has been criticized for accepting a ceasefire plan that mostly echoes Vladimir Putin's maximalist demands.

In social media updates this weekend, Vance argued that a peace deal would have to establish a ceasefire that respected Ukrainian independence, be agreeable to both sides, and stop the conflict from restarting.

“Peace will not be made by unsuccessful diplomats or politicians living in a dream world,” he continued. “An agreement might be made by intelligent people living in the actual situation.”

It was Vance who followed up on the introduction of the peace plan in a phone call with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had primarily tasked his team with securing a signature on the peace deal prior to Thanksgiving this Thursday in the United States.

The Secretary of State's Reaction and Private Concerns

Vance's stance was a distinctly more enthusiastic endorsement of the plan than that expressed by the secretary of state and national security adviser, Marco Rubio, a more conventional hawk in the administration who has transitioned from a uncertain position inside the White House to more firm footing.

Rubio was a member of a US team that went to Geneva this past weekend to confer with Ukrainian leaders to help refine the initial 28-point ceasefire proposal in order to make it more acceptable to leaders in Kyiv.

However, his first reaction to the deal was lukewarm:

“Stopping a complex and deadly conflict such as the one in Ukraine demands an thorough exchange of substantive and realistic ideas,” Rubio stated over the weekend. “Furthermore, securing a lasting ceasefire will necessitate both sides to agree to difficult but necessary compromises. That is why we are and will persist to create a list of possible ideas for ending this conflict 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 said recently at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had contacted legislators to clarify that the agreement was just a preliminary offer from the Russians and not an initiative advocated by the administration.

“The Secretary did make a phone 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 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. “This ceasefire plan was authored by the US,” he later stated. “It is presented as a solid framework for continuing negotiations. The proposal is based on feedback from the Moscow. But, it is additionally based on earlier and ongoing contributions from Ukraine.”