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America's Army Secretary, Dan Driscoll, emerged as an surprising diplomat for the Trump administration latest initiative to resolve the conflict in Ukraine. Driscoll's strong relationship with Vice President Vance has placed a key ally of the Euroskeptic VP at the forefront of Donald Trump recent effort to conclude the war.

Before his recent visit to Kyiv, Driscoll was not known as a mediator or diplomat, and his early attempts to promote the agreement to officials in Europe were labeled chaotic.

His close ties with Vance, who he attended Yale and maintains a personal bond, signal the rising influence of the non-interventionist VP in negotiations to resolve the Ukraine war.

The VP's Role 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 once again pushing back against demands from the US to agree to a quick settlement that local officials have called a capitulation.

Following a chaotic initial year in office, foreign policy decisions in the White House are reportedly shaped by a handful of Trump's top advisers, including chief of staff Susie Wiles, rightwing adviser Stephen Miller, diplomat Steve Witkoff, State Department head Marco Rubio, and finally Vance.

Vance has been a outspoken supporter of the latest plan, which was crafted by Witkoff and Trump's relative Jared Kushner, alongside the Kremlin envoy Kirill Dmitriev.

“All criticism of the ceasefire plan the White House is developing either misunderstands the proposal or misrepresents some critical reality on the ground,” Vance stated.

Early Efforts and European Reactions

Vance's early attempts at negotiating a peace deal with Russia, while simultaneously attempting to renew ties with Moscow, were unsuccessful and left his camp feeling disappointed with their Russian interlocutors. Leaders in Europe, meanwhile, were irritated by his initial speeches, in which he accused them of running from their constituents, who Vance claimed held restrictionist and conservative positions similar to those of Trump's own supporters.

However, the new peace deal closely resembled his stances, and he has been one of the most assertive spokespeople for the agreement in the government, even as the US has been under fire for accepting a ceasefire plan that mostly resembles Vladimir Putin's maximalist terms.

In social media updates this weekend, Vance asserted that a peace deal would have to establish a truce that respected Ukrainian sovereignty, be acceptable to each party, and stop the conflict from restarting.

“Peace won’t be made by failed negotiators or officials living in a fantasy land,” he added. “An agreement could be made by smart people living in the real world.”

Additionally, it was Vance who continued on the introduction of the peace plan in a conversation with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had mainly instructed his team with securing a agreement on the ceasefire accord before Thanksgiving this Thursday in the United States.

The Secretary of State's Response and Internal Concerns

Vance's stance was a notably more full-throated support of the plan than that expressed by the secretary of state and security advisor, Marco Rubio, a more conventional hardliner in the government who has gone from a uncertain position inside the administration to more stable standing.

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

But, his first reaction to the deal was tepid:

“Stopping a complicated and violent conflict such as the one in Ukraine demands an thorough exchange of substantive and pragmatic proposals,” Rubio stated over the weekend. “Furthermore, achieving a lasting peace will necessitate both sides to agree to challenging but essential concessions. That is why we are and will continue to develop a list of potential ideas for ending this conflict based on feedback from each party of this conflict.”

In private, he was reportedly much more doubtful of the plan. The GOP lawmaker Mike Rounds said last week at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had contacted lawmakers to explain that the deal was just a initial proposal from the Russians and not an plan advocated by the administration.

“Rubio did make a phone call to us this afternoon and I believe he emphasized to us that we are the recipients of a offer that was presented to one of our officials,” stated Rounds. “It is not our suggestion, it is not our ceasefire proposal.”

Rubio moved quickly to align himself. “The peace proposal was written by the US,” he later wrote. “The framework is offered as a solid structure for ongoing discussions. The proposal is derived from input from the Russian side. However, it is additionally based on previous and ongoing input from Ukraine.”