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America's Secretary of the Army, Dan Driscoll, was an unlikely diplomat for the Trump administration latest initiative to end the conflict in Ukraine. Driscoll's close relationship with JD Vance has positioned a key ally of the Euroskeptic VP at the center of President Trump's latest push to conclude the conflict.

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

His strong relationship with Vance, with whom he studied and maintains a personal bond, indicate the rising influence of the non-interventionist vice-president in negotiations to end the Ukraine crisis.

Vance's Role in Ceasefire Efforts

This was Vance who stepped in during Volodymyr Zelenskyy rocky first trip to the White House in March and demanded he show Trump more respect. Now, Ukraine is once again resisting pressure from the US to accept a quick deal that local officials have described as a surrender.

After a chaotic initial year in office, foreign policy actions in the White House are reportedly shaped by a handful of Trump's top aides, such as top aide Susie Wiles, rightwing adviser Stephen Miller, diplomat Steve Witkoff, State Department head Marco Rubio, and of course Vance.

Vance has been a vocal supporter of the recent proposal, which was crafted by Witkoff and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, together with the Kremlin envoy Kirill Dmitriev.

“All criticism of the ceasefire plan the administration is developing either misunderstands the proposal or misrepresents some critical situation on the ground,” Vance wrote.

Early Attempts and EU Reactions

Vance's early efforts at negotiating a peace deal with Russia, while simultaneously attempting to renew ties with Moscow, were fruitless and left his team feeling disappointed with their Russian counterparts. European officials, meanwhile, were irritated by his initial speeches, in which he accused them of ignoring their constituents, who Vance claimed held anti-immigration and right-leaning views 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 forceful spokespeople for the agreement in the government, even as the US has been under fire for endorsing a peace framework that largely echoes Vladimir Putin's extreme demands.

In posts this past weekend, Vance asserted that a peace deal would have to produce a ceasefire that honored Ukrainian independence, be acceptable to both sides, and prevent the war from restarting.

“Peace will not be made by failed negotiators or politicians living in a dream world,” he continued. “It could be made by intelligent people operating in the real world.”

Additionally, it was Vance who followed up on the introduction of the peace plan in a phone call with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had mainly tasked his team with securing a agreement on the ceasefire accord before Thanksgiving this week in the United States.

Rubio's Reaction and Private Doubts

That was a notably more enthusiastic endorsement of the proposal than that expressed by the top diplomat and security advisor, Marco Rubio, a more conventional hawk in the administration who has transitioned from a shaky stature inside the White House to more firm standing.

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

However, his initial response to the deal was tepid:

“Ending a complex and deadly war such as the one in Ukraine demands an thorough discussion of serious and pragmatic ideas,” Rubio wrote recently. “And, securing a lasting ceasefire will necessitate both sides to agree to challenging but essential concessions. This is the reason we are and will persist to create a list of potential ideas for resolving this war drawing from feedback from both sides of this war.”

Behind closed doors, he was said to be much more skeptical of the plan. The Republican senator Mike Rounds said last week at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had contacted legislators to clarify that the deal was merely a initial offer from the Russians and not an plan pushed by the administration.

“Rubio made a call to us this day and I think he emphasized to us that we are the receivers of a proposal that was presented to one of our representatives,” said Rounds. “It is not our suggestion, it is not our peace plan.”

Rubio moved quickly to align himself. “The peace proposal was written by the US,” he later wrote. “It is presented as a strong framework for continuing negotiations. The proposal is based on feedback from the Moscow. But, it is also informed by previous and current contributions from Ukraine.”