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America's Secretary of the Army, Daniel Driscoll, emerged as an unlikely envoy for the Trump administration newest proposal to end the conflict in Ukraine. Driscoll's close relationship with JD Vance has placed a key ally of the Eurosceptic vice-president at the center of President Trump's latest effort to conclude the conflict.

Prior to his last week's visit to Kyiv, Driscoll was unrecognized as a mediator or diplomat, and his initial attempts to sell the deal to officials in Europe were described as turbulent.

His close ties with Vance, with whom he studied and maintains a close friendship, indicate the rising influence of the non-interventionist vice-president in talks to resolve the Ukraine crisis.

The VP's Involvement in Ceasefire Efforts

It was Vance who intervened during Ukraine's president's rocky first visit to the Trump White House in March and demanded he show Trump more courtesy. Currently, Ukraine is again pushing back against pressure from the US to agree to a quick deal that Ukrainian leaders have described as a surrender.

After a chaotic first year in power, international decisions in the White House are reportedly influenced by a handful of Trump's key aides, including top aide Susie Wiles, rightwing advisor Stephen Miller, envoy Steve Witkoff, State Department head Marco Rubio, and of course Vance.

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

“All criticism of the ceasefire plan the White House is developing either misunderstands the proposal or misstates some key situation on the ground,” Vance stated.

Early Attempts and EU Responses

Vance's initial efforts at hammering out a peace deal with Russia, while also attempting to renew relations with Moscow, were fruitless and left his team feeling frustrated with their Russian counterparts. Leaders in Europe, meanwhile, were angered by his early remarks, in which he accused them of ignoring their constituents, who Vance claimed held anti-immigration and conservative views close to those of Trump's own supporters.

However, the new ceasefire proposal closely resembled his positions, and he has been one of the most assertive advocates for the agreement in the government, even as the US has been criticized for accepting a peace framework that largely echoes Vladimir Putin's extreme terms.

In social media updates this weekend, Vance asserted that a ceasefire agreement would have to produce a truce that honored Ukrainian independence, be agreeable to each party, and stop the conflict from restarting.

“A ceasefire won’t be made by unsuccessful diplomats or politicians living in a fantasy land,” he added. “An agreement could be made by intelligent people operating in the actual situation.”

It was Vance who continued on the introduction of the ceasefire proposal in a conversation with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had primarily tasked his staff with obtaining a agreement on the ceasefire accord prior to Thanksgiving this Thursday in the United States.

Rubio's Reaction and Internal Concerns

Vance's stance was a notably more full-throated support of the plan than that given by the top diplomat and security advisor, Marco Rubio, a more conventional hawk in the administration who has transitioned from a uncertain stature inside the White House to more firm footing.

Rubio was a member of a US team that went to Geneva this weekend to meet with Ukrainian officials to help moderate the original 28-point ceasefire proposal in order to make it more palatable to authorities in Kyiv.

But, his initial reaction to the agreement was tepid:

“Ending a complex and deadly war such as the one in Ukraine requires an thorough exchange of substantive and pragmatic ideas,” Rubio wrote recently. “Furthermore, securing a lasting ceasefire will necessitate each party to agree to challenging but necessary compromises. That is why we are and will persist to develop a set of potential ideas for ending this war drawing from input from each party of this war.”

In private, he was reportedly 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 contacted legislators to clarify that the deal was merely a preliminary proposal from the Russians and not an plan pushed by the administration.

“Rubio did make a call to us this afternoon and I think 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. “The document is not our suggestion, it is not our ceasefire proposal.”

Rubio acted swiftly to fall in line. “The peace proposal was written by the US,” he subsequently stated. “The framework is offered as a strong structure for ongoing negotiations. The proposal is derived from feedback from the Russian side. However, it is additionally informed by earlier and current input from Ukraine.”