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The US Secretary of the Army, Dan Driscoll, was an surprising envoy for the White House's newest initiative to resolve the conflict in Ukraine. Driscoll's strong connection with JD Vance has positioned a key ally of the Euroskeptic vice-president at the center of Donald Trump latest effort to settle the war.

Prior to his last week's visit to Kyiv, Driscoll was not known as a mediator or diplomat, and his initial attempts to promote the deal to European policymakers were described as turbulent.

Driscoll's strong ties with Vance, who he studied and shares a close friendship, signal the resurgence of the isolationist VP in negotiations to end the Ukraine war.

The VP's Role in Ceasefire Efforts

This was Vance who stepped in during Volodymyr Zelenskyy disastrous initial trip to the Trump White House in March and demanded he show Trump more respect. Currently, Ukraine is again resisting pressure from the US to accept a swift settlement that local officials have described as a capitulation.

After a tumultuous initial year in office, foreign policy decisions in the White House are said to be influenced by a small group of Trump's top aides, such as top aide Susie Wiles, conservative advisor Stephen Miller, diplomat Steve Witkoff, State Department head Marco Rubio, and of course Vance.

Vance has been a outspoken advocate of the recent plan, which was developed by Witkoff and Trump's relative Jared Kushner, alongside the Russian diplomat Kirill Dmitriev.

“All objection of the peace framework the White House is developing either misinterprets the proposal or misstates some key reality on the ground,” the VP stated.

Early Efforts and EU Reactions

Vance's initial efforts at negotiating a peace deal with Russia, while simultaneously seeking to restore relations with Moscow, were fruitless and left his camp feeling frustrated with their Russian interlocutors. Leaders in Europe, in turn, were angered by his early remarks, in which he accused them of running from their voters, who Vance said held anti-immigration and right-leaning positions similar to those of Trump's own supporters.

However, the recently published ceasefire proposal closely resembled his stances, and he has been one of the most forceful advocates for the deal in the government, even as the US has been under fire for endorsing a ceasefire plan that mostly echoes Vladimir Putin's maximalist terms.

In social media updates this past weekend, Vance argued that a ceasefire agreement would have to produce a ceasefire that respected Ukrainian independence, be agreeable to each party, and stop the conflict from restarting.

“Peace won’t be made by unsuccessful negotiators or politicians residing in a fantasy land,” he added. “An agreement might be made by intelligent people operating in the real world.”

Additionally, it was Vance who followed up on the presentation of the peace plan in a phone call with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had primarily instructed his team with securing a signature on the peace deal before Thanksgiving this Thursday in the United States.

Rubio's Reaction and Private Concerns

Vance's stance was a notably more full-throated endorsement of the proposal than that expressed by the top diplomat and security advisor, Marco Rubio, a more traditional hardliner in the government who has gone from a shaky position inside the administration to more firm footing.

Rubio was a member of a US delegation that traveled to Geneva this weekend to confer with Ukrainian leaders to help moderate the original 28-point ceasefire proposal in order to make it more acceptable to authorities in Kyiv.

However, his first reaction to the deal was tepid:

“Ending a complicated and deadly conflict such as the one in Ukraine requires an extensive discussion of serious and pragmatic ideas,” Rubio stated over the weekend. “Furthermore, achieving a durable peace will require each party to agree to challenging but necessary compromises. That is why we are and will continue to create a set of possible solutions for ending this war based on input 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 stated recently at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had contacted legislators to clarify that the deal was merely a preliminary proposal from the Russians and not an plan pushed by the administration.

“The Secretary made a call to us this day and I think he emphasized to us that we are the recipients of a proposal that was presented to one of our officials,” stated Rounds. “It is not our suggestion, it is not our ceasefire proposal.”

Rubio moved quickly to align himself. “This ceasefire plan was written by the US,” he later stated. “The framework is offered as a solid structure for ongoing discussions. The proposal is derived from feedback from the Russian side. But, it is additionally based on earlier and current input from Ukraine.”