Did the Secretary of the Army succeed where Steven Witkoff fell short? The unusual intervention of Dan Driscoll into negotiations to end the Russian war on Ukraine has apparently paid dividends.
According to ABC News, Ukraine has agreed to support a negotiated version of Donald Trump’s 28-point plan to end the war. Meanwhile, the Russians are responding better to Driscoll than any other negotiator:
A U.S. official told ABC News on Tuesday that a Ukrainian delegation has agreed with the United States on the terms of a potential peace deal.
United States Army Secretary Dan Driscoll held secret talks on Monday with a Russian delegation in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates to follow up on this weekend’s talks with Ukraine in Geneva that were intended to move the Ukraine peace process forward, a U.S. official told ABC News.
“The Ukrainians have agreed to the peace deal,” the U.S. official said. “There are some minor details to be sorted out but they have agreed to a peace deal.”
The term “minor details” might have plenty of stretch, but the speed to the agreement suggests that Ukraine has largely accepted the framework provided by Trump. Volodomyr Zelensky initially complained that the proposal forced Ukraine to choose between its “dignity” and its Western support. The EU balked at it initially as well, and Trump publicly agreed to negotiations with Ukraine to get their agreement. Those have been led ostensibly by Marco Rubio, who as Secretary of State is America’s top-ranking diplomat.
However, the inclusion of Driscoll in the negotiations has provided something of a confidence builder to both the Ukrainians and the Russians, according to both ABC and the Wall Street Journal:
President Trump’s decision to turn to the civilian head of the Army, whose job is normally focused on training and equipping soldiers, to try to revive the stalled talks was driven by the belief that Kyiv and Moscow might be more open to military-brokered negotiations, according to the officials.
Senior U.S. Army leaders have maintained close relations with their Ukrainian counterparts throughout the four-year war; meanwhile U.S. officials think Moscow might have more respect for U.S. military leaders. …
Driscoll’s travels to Kyiv last week vaulted the Army secretary, a friend and former Yale Law classmate of Vice President JD Vance, into an unexpected diplomatic role not normally held by a civilian head of a military branch.
The Ukrainians probably figure that they can rely on military leaders to understand their security issues better than politicians. The Russians want respect more than flowery language, and they would likely get more of it from military professionals. Driscoll may have been an unusual choice for diplomacy and peace-making, but after nearly four years of endless carnage for no real purpose, it’s time to look for new strategies and personnel to shake things up.
The WSJ makes it sound as though Driscoll has the Russians ready to discuss the modified plan emerging from the Ukrainians:
Driscoll planned to present the Russians with a modified peace proposal—initially based on a leaked 28-point plan advanced by the U.S.—that emerged from negotiations with senior Ukrainian military and government officials in Kyiv and Geneva over the weekend, the officials said.
What are the chances of success? The New York Times has a report this morning praising Rubio’s work in getting talks back to a “middle ground” between the two combatants, but notes that the changes to the plan likely will lose the Russians:
By Sunday night Mr. Rubio appeared to have wrestled back control of the negotiations.
He excised — for now — sections that would forever bar Ukraine from joining NATO and that banned NATO member states from forming a security force inside Ukraine that would deter Russia from launching a new invasion.
A White House official added that a previous provision requiring Ukraine to cede territory to Russia had been revised. But now comes the hard part: Those are exactly the provisions that Mr. Putin cares about most.
Russia experts have assessed that there are no signs yet that Mr. Putin is ready to end the full-scale invasion of Ukraine he started in February 2022, or that he would abide by a permanent cease-fire.
The NYT report barely mentions Driscoll, except to note his connection to Vance and that he “presented” Trump’s plan to Ukrainian negotiators. They seem to have missed the story that both ABC and the WSJ found in Driscoll’s unusual diplomatic role and its meaning. If ABC News has it right today, they may also have missed the progress made by it. Stay tuned.
Editor’s Note: Thanks to President Trump and his administration’s bold leadership, we are respected on the world stage, and our enemies are being put on notice.
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