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America's Secretary of the Army, Dan Driscoll, emerged as an unlikely diplomat for the Trump administration latest initiative to end the conflict in Ukraine. Driscoll's strong connection with Vice President Vance has placed a key ally of the Euroskeptic vice-president at the forefront of President Trump's recent effort to settle the war.

Before his last week's visit to Kyiv, Driscoll was not known as a negotiator or statesman, and his early efforts to sell the deal to European policymakers were labeled turbulent.

His close ties with Vance, who he studied and maintains a close friendship, signal the rising influence of the non-interventionist VP in negotiations to end the Ukraine war.

The VP's Role in Peace Efforts

It was Vance who stepped in during Ukraine's president's disastrous first visit to the White House in March and insisted he show Trump more courtesy. Currently, Ukraine is once again pushing back against demands from the US to agree to a quick deal that local officials have called a surrender.

After a tumultuous first year in power, international actions in the White House are reportedly shaped by a small group of Trump's top advisers, 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 proposal, which was crafted by Witkoff and Trump's relative Jared Kushner, together with the Kremlin envoy Kirill Dmitriev.

“All criticism of the ceasefire plan the White House is working on either misinterprets the proposal or misstates some critical situation on the ground,” Vance stated.

Early Efforts and European Reactions

Vance's early efforts at hammering out a ceasefire agreement with Russia, while also attempting to renew relations with Moscow, were unsuccessful and left his team feeling frustrated with their Russian interlocutors. Leaders in Europe, meanwhile, were irritated by his early remarks, in which he accused them of ignoring their voters, who Vance said held restrictionist and right-leaning positions close to those of Trump's own supporters.

However, the recently published peace deal closely resembled his stances, and he has been one of the most assertive advocates for the deal in the administration, even as the US has been under fire for accepting a ceasefire plan that mostly echoes Vladimir Putin's extreme demands.

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.

“A ceasefire won’t be made by failed negotiators or politicians residing in a dream world,” he added. “An agreement might be made by intelligent people living in the actual situation.”

It was Vance who continued on the introduction of the peace plan in a phone call with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had mainly instructed his team with securing a signature on the ceasefire accord before Thanksgiving this week in the United States.

The Secretary of State's Reaction and Internal Concerns

Vance's stance was a notably more enthusiastic support of the plan than that given by the secretary of state and security advisor, Marco Rubio, a more conventional hardliner in the administration who has gone from a uncertain position inside the White House to more firm footing.

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

But, his first reaction to the deal was tepid:

“Ending a complicated and deadly conflict such as the one in Ukraine demands an thorough exchange of substantive and pragmatic ideas,” Rubio wrote recently. “And, securing a durable peace will necessitate both sides to agree to challenging but essential concessions. That is why we are and will continue to create a set of possible solutions for ending this war drawing from input from both sides of this war.”

Behind closed doors, he was reportedly much more skeptical of the plan. The GOP lawmaker Mike Rounds said recently at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had contacted lawmakers to clarify that the agreement was just a preliminary offer from the Russians and not an initiative pushed by the White House.

“Rubio made a phone call to us this afternoon and I think he made it very clear to us that we are the recipients of a offer that was presented to one of our representatives,” stated Rounds. “The document is not our recommendation, it is not our ceasefire proposal.”

Rubio acted swiftly to fall in line. “The peace proposal was written by the US,” he subsequently wrote. “It is offered as a strong framework for continuing discussions. The proposal is derived from feedback from the Russian side. However, it is also informed by previous and current input from Ukraine.”