The US Army Secretary, Daniel Driscoll, was an surprising diplomat for the White House's newest initiative to resolve the conflict in Ukraine. His close connection with JD Vance has positioned a key ally of the Euroskeptic vice-president at the center of Donald Trump latest push to conclude the conflict.
Prior to his recent trip to Kyiv, Driscoll was unrecognized as a mediator or statesman, and his initial efforts to promote the deal to European policymakers were labeled chaotic.
Driscoll's strong ties with Vance, who he studied and maintains a close friendship, signal the rising influence of the non-interventionist vice-president in talks to resolve the Ukraine war.
The VP's Involvement in Peace Negotiations
This was Vance who intervened during Ukraine's president's rocky initial trip to the White House in March and demanded he show Trump more courtesy. Now, Ukraine is once again resisting pressure from the US to accept a swift settlement that local officials have called a surrender.
After a chaotic initial year in power, foreign policy actions in the White House are reportedly shaped by a handful of Trump's key advisers, such as top aide Susie Wiles, rightwing advisor Stephen Miller, diplomat Steve Witkoff, State Department head Marco Rubio, and finally Vance.
Vance has been a outspoken advocate of the recent plan, which was developed by Witkoff and Trump's relative Jared Kushner, together with the Russian diplomat Kirill Dmitriev.
“Every objection of the ceasefire plan the White House is developing either misinterprets the framework or misrepresents some key situation on the ground,” Vance wrote.
Early Attempts and EU Reactions
Vance's initial attempts at hammering out a ceasefire agreement with Russia, while also attempting to restore ties with Moscow, were unsuccessful and left his team feeling disappointed with their Russian counterparts. Leaders in Europe, in turn, were irritated by his early remarks, in which he charged them of ignoring their voters, who Vance claimed held restrictionist and conservative positions similar to those of Trump's own constituency.
However, the new peace deal mirrored his stances, and he has been one of the most assertive advocates for the agreement in the government, even as the US has been under fire for endorsing a ceasefire plan that mostly resembles Vladimir Putin's maximalist demands.
In social media updates this weekend, Vance argued that a ceasefire agreement would have to produce a truce that honored Ukrainian sovereignty, be agreeable to both sides, and prevent the war from resuming.
“Peace will not be made by unsuccessful diplomats or politicians residing in a dream world,” he continued. “An agreement might be made by smart people operating in the real world.”
Additionally, it was Vance who continued on the introduction of the ceasefire proposal in a conversation with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had primarily instructed his staff with securing a signature on the ceasefire accord before Thanksgiving this Thursday in the United States.
The Secretary of State's Reaction and Private Doubts
That was a notably more enthusiastic support of the plan than that expressed by the top diplomat and national security adviser, Marco Rubio, a more conventional hardliner in the government who has transitioned from a uncertain position inside the administration to more firm footing.
Rubio was part of a US team that went to Geneva this weekend to meet with Ukrainian officials to help refine the initial 28-point ceasefire proposal in order to make it more acceptable to authorities in Kyiv.
However, his initial reaction to the agreement was lukewarm:
“Stopping a complex and deadly war such as the one in Ukraine requires an extensive discussion of serious and pragmatic ideas,” Rubio wrote recently. “And, securing a durable peace will require both sides to consent to challenging but necessary concessions. That is why we are and will continue to create a set of possible ideas for ending this war drawing from feedback from both sides of this war.”
Behind closed doors, he was reportedly much more doubtful of the proposal. The GOP lawmaker Mike Rounds stated recently at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had contacted lawmakers to clarify that the deal was merely a preliminary proposal from the Russians and not an plan pushed by the White House.
“Rubio made a phone call to us this afternoon and I think he made it very clear to us that we are the receivers of a offer that was delivered to one of our representatives,” stated Rounds. “The document is not our suggestion, it is not our peace plan.”
Rubio acted swiftly to align himself. “The peace proposal was authored by the US,” he subsequently wrote. “The framework is presented as a solid framework for ongoing negotiations. It is derived from input from the Russian side. However, it is additionally based on earlier and current contributions from Ukraine.”
