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America's Secretary of the Army, Dan Driscoll, emerged as an unlikely envoy for the Trump administration latest initiative to end the Russian invasion in Ukraine. His strong connection with Vice President Vance has positioned a close associate of the Euroskeptic vice-president at the center of President Trump's recent effort to conclude the conflict.

Before his recent visit to Kyiv, Driscoll was unrecognized as a negotiator or statesman, and his initial efforts to sell the deal to officials in Europe were described as turbulent.

His close relationship with Vance, with whom he studied and maintains a personal bond, indicate the rising influence of the isolationist VP in talks to resolve the Ukraine war.

The VP's Role in Peace Efforts

This was Vance who intervened during Ukraine's president's disastrous initial visit to the White House in March and insisted he show Trump more respect. Currently, Ukraine is again resisting pressure from the US to accept a swift deal that local officials have called a surrender.

Following a chaotic first year in power, foreign policy decisions in the White House are said to be shaped by a handful of Trump's key aides, including top aide Susie Wiles, rightwing adviser Stephen Miller, diplomat Steve Witkoff, secretary of state Marco Rubio, and finally Vance.

Vance has been a outspoken supporter of the latest plan, which was developed 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 misunderstands the proposal or misstates some key reality on the ground,” the VP stated.

Initial Attempts and EU Responses

Vance's early efforts at hammering out a ceasefire agreement with Russia, while simultaneously seeking to restore relations with Moscow, were unsuccessful and left his camp feeling frustrated with their Russian interlocutors. European officials, in turn, were angered by his early remarks, in which he charged them of ignoring their voters, who Vance said held anti-immigration and right-leaning views similar to those of Trump's own constituency.

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 resembles Vladimir Putin's extreme terms.

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

“A ceasefire will not be made by unsuccessful diplomats or politicians living in a dream world,” he added. “An agreement could be made by smart people operating in the actual situation.”

It was Vance who continued on the presentation of the peace plan in a conversation with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had primarily instructed his team with obtaining a agreement on the peace deal before Thanksgiving this week in the United States.

Rubio's Reaction and Private Doubts

That was a notably more enthusiastic support of the proposal than that given by the secretary of state and national security adviser, Marco Rubio, a more conventional hardliner in the government who has gone from a shaky stature inside the administration to more firm standing.

Rubio was part of a US delegation that traveled to Geneva this weekend to meet with Ukrainian leaders to help moderate the original 28-point ceasefire proposal in order to make it more acceptable to authorities in Kyiv.

But, his initial response to the deal was tepid:

“Stopping a complex and violent war such as the one in Ukraine requires an thorough exchange of serious and realistic ideas,” Rubio wrote over the weekend. “And, securing a durable peace will necessitate each party to agree to challenging but essential concessions. This is the reason we are and will persist to create a set of potential solutions for ending this conflict drawing from 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 last week at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had contacted legislators to explain that the agreement was merely a preliminary proposal from the Russians and not an plan advocated by the administration.

“The Secretary did make a call to us this day and I think he emphasized to us that we are the recipients of a proposal that was delivered to one of our officials,” said Rounds. “The document is not our suggestion, it is not our ceasefire proposal.”

Rubio moved quickly to align himself. “This ceasefire plan was written by the US,” he later stated. “The framework is presented as a solid framework for ongoing discussions. It is based on input from the Moscow. But, it is also based on previous and ongoing input from Ukraine.”