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The US Army Secretary, Dan Driscoll, emerged as an surprising envoy for the Trump administration latest proposal to end the conflict in Ukraine. Driscoll's strong relationship with Vice President Vance has placed a close associate of the Euroskeptic vice-president at the forefront of Donald Trump latest effort to conclude the conflict.

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

His close relationship with Vance, who he studied and shares a personal bond, signal the resurgence of the isolationist vice-president in negotiations to end the Ukraine crisis.

Vance's Role in Ceasefire Negotiations

It was Vance who intervened during Ukraine's president's disastrous first trip to the White House in March and insisted he show Trump more respect. Now, Ukraine is once again pushing back against pressure from the US to accept a quick deal that Ukrainian leaders have described as a surrender.

After a chaotic initial year in office, international decisions in the White House are said to be influenced by a small group of Trump's top advisers, including top aide Susie Wiles, rightwing adviser Stephen Miller, diplomat Steve Witkoff, State Department head Marco Rubio, and of course Vance.

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

“Every criticism of the peace framework the White House is working on either misinterprets the framework or misstates some key situation on the ground,” Vance stated.

Initial Attempts and European Responses

Vance's initial attempts at hammering out a peace deal with Russia, while also attempting to renew ties with Moscow, were fruitless and left his camp feeling frustrated with their Russian counterparts. Leaders in Europe, in turn, were irritated by his initial remarks, in which he accused them of ignoring their constituents, who Vance said held anti-immigration and conservative positions similar to those of Trump's own constituency.

But, the recently published ceasefire proposal 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 largely echoes Vladimir Putin's maximalist terms.

In posts this past weekend, Vance asserted that a peace deal would have to produce a ceasefire that respected Ukrainian sovereignty, be agreeable to each party, and stop the conflict from restarting.

“A ceasefire will not be made by failed diplomats or politicians living in a dream world,” he added. “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 phone call with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had primarily instructed his staff with securing a agreement on the ceasefire accord before Thanksgiving this week in the United States.

The Secretary of State's Response and Internal Concerns

Vance's stance was a notably more enthusiastic endorsement of the plan than that expressed by the secretary of state and national security adviser, Marco Rubio, a more conventional hardliner in the administration who has gone from a uncertain stature inside the White House to more stable standing.

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

However, his initial reaction to the deal was tepid:

“Ending a complex and violent conflict such as the one in Ukraine demands an extensive exchange of serious and realistic ideas,” Rubio wrote over the weekend. “And, securing a lasting ceasefire will require both sides to agree to challenging but necessary compromises. That is why we are and will continue to create a list of possible solutions for resolving this war drawing from feedback from each party of this conflict.”

In private, he was said to be much more skeptical of the plan. The Republican senator Mike Rounds stated recently at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had contacted lawmakers to explain that the agreement was just a initial offer from the Russians and not an plan advocated by the White House.

“The Secretary made a call to us this day and I believe he emphasized 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 peace plan.”

Rubio moved quickly to fall in line. “This ceasefire plan was written by the US,” he later wrote. “It is presented as a strong framework for ongoing negotiations. The proposal is derived from feedback from the Russian side. However, it is also based on earlier and ongoing contributions from Ukraine.”