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America's Army Secretary, Dan Driscoll, emerged as an unlikely diplomat for the White House's latest initiative to end the conflict in Ukraine. His strong relationship with Vice President Vance has placed a close associate of the Euroskeptic VP at the forefront of Donald Trump latest effort to settle the conflict.

Prior to his recent trip to Kyiv, Driscoll was not known as a mediator or diplomat, and his initial attempts to promote the agreement to European policymakers were described as turbulent.

Driscoll's strong relationship with Vance, who he studied and maintains a close friendship, indicate the resurgence of the isolationist VP in talks to end the Ukraine war.

The VP's Involvement in Ceasefire Efforts

It was Vance who stepped in during Ukraine's president's disastrous initial trip to the Trump White House in March and demanded he show Trump more courtesy. Currently, Ukraine is again resisting pressure from the US to agree to a swift deal that Ukrainian leaders have called a capitulation.

Following a chaotic first year in office, international actions in the White House are reportedly influenced by a small group of Trump's key aides, such as chief of staff Susie Wiles, conservative adviser 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 crafted by Witkoff and Trump's relative Jared Kushner, alongside the Kremlin envoy Kirill Dmitriev.

“All criticism of the ceasefire plan the administration is developing either misinterprets the proposal or misstates some critical situation on the ground,” the VP stated.

Early Efforts and European Responses

Vance's early attempts at hammering out a peace deal with Russia, while simultaneously seeking to restore ties with Moscow, were unsuccessful and left his team feeling disappointed with their Russian interlocutors. European officials, meanwhile, were irritated by his initial remarks, in which he charged them of ignoring their voters, who Vance claimed held restrictionist and right-leaning positions close to those of Trump's own supporters.

But, the new ceasefire proposal closely resembled his positions, and he has been one of the most assertive spokespeople for the deal in the government, even as the US has been criticized for accepting a ceasefire plan that mostly resembles Vladimir Putin's extreme terms.

In social media updates this past weekend, Vance argued that a peace deal would have to produce a truce that honored Ukrainian sovereignty, be acceptable to both sides, and stop the war from resuming.

“Peace will not be made by unsuccessful diplomats or politicians living in a dream world,” he continued. “An agreement might be made by smart people living in the real world.”

Additionally, it was Vance who continued on the presentation of the peace plan in a phone call with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had primarily instructed his team with securing a agreement on the ceasefire accord prior to Thanksgiving this Thursday in the United States.

The Secretary of State's Reaction and Internal Doubts

Vance's stance was a notably more enthusiastic endorsement of the plan than that given by the secretary of state and security advisor, Marco Rubio, a more conventional hawk in the administration who has transitioned from a uncertain stature inside the administration to more stable standing.

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

However, his first response to the agreement was tepid:

“Stopping a complicated and violent war such as the one in Ukraine demands an thorough exchange of substantive and pragmatic ideas,” Rubio wrote over the weekend. “And, achieving a lasting peace will necessitate both sides to agree to difficult but necessary compromises. That is why we are and will persist to develop a list of potential solutions for ending this conflict based on feedback from both sides of this conflict.”

Behind closed doors, 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 called legislators to explain that the agreement was merely a initial offer from the Russians and not an plan pushed by the White House.

“Rubio did make a call to us this afternoon and I think he emphasized to us that we are the receivers of a proposal that was presented to one of our representatives,” stated Rounds. “It is not our recommendation, it is not our ceasefire proposal.”

Rubio moved quickly to fall in line. “The peace proposal was authored by the US,” he subsequently stated. “The framework is presented as a strong framework for continuing negotiations. It is based on feedback from the Russian side. But, it is additionally informed by earlier and ongoing contributions from Ukraine.”