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America's Secretary of the Army, Daniel Driscoll, was an unlikely diplomat for the White House's newest proposal to resolve the conflict in Ukraine. Driscoll's close connection with JD Vance has placed a close associate of the Eurosceptic VP at the forefront of President Trump's latest push to conclude the conflict.

Before his last week's trip to Kyiv, Driscoll was unrecognized as a mediator or statesman, and his initial attempts to promote the agreement to officials in Europe were described as turbulent.

Driscoll's strong relationship with Vance, with whom he attended Yale and shares a close friendship, signal the rising influence of the non-interventionist vice-president in negotiations to end the Ukraine war.

Vance's Involvement in Ceasefire Efforts

This was Vance who stepped in during Volodymyr Zelenskyy rocky initial visit to the Trump White House in March and demanded he show Trump more courtesy. Now, Ukraine is again resisting demands from the US to agree to a quick deal that Ukrainian leaders have called a surrender.

After a tumultuous first year in power, foreign policy decisions in the White House are reportedly shaped by a handful of Trump's key aides, including chief of staff Susie Wiles, rightwing advisor Stephen Miller, envoy Steve Witkoff, secretary of state Marco Rubio, and finally Vance.

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

“All objection of the ceasefire plan the White House is developing either misinterprets the framework or misrepresents some critical situation on the ground,” Vance wrote.

Initial Efforts and European Reactions

Vance's initial attempts at negotiating a ceasefire agreement with Russia, while simultaneously attempting to restore ties with Moscow, were fruitless and left his camp feeling frustrated with their Russian interlocutors. European officials, in turn, were irritated by his early speeches, in which he accused them of running from their constituents, who Vance claimed held anti-immigration and right-leaning positions similar to those of Trump's own supporters.

However, the recently published ceasefire proposal mirrored his positions, and he has been one of the most forceful 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 maximalist terms.

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

“Peace will not be made by failed negotiators or politicians living in a fantasy land,” he continued. “An agreement might be made by intelligent people living in the actual situation.”

It was Vance who continued on the presentation of the peace plan in a conversation with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had primarily instructed his team with securing a agreement on the ceasefire accord prior to Thanksgiving this week in the United States.

The Secretary of State's Reaction and Internal Doubts

Vance's stance was a notably more full-throated support of the plan than that given by the secretary of state and national security adviser, Marco Rubio, a more conventional hardliner in the government who has transitioned from a shaky position inside the White House to more stable standing.

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

But, his initial reaction to the agreement was tepid:

“Ending a complicated and violent conflict such as the one in Ukraine requires an thorough exchange of substantive and realistic proposals,” Rubio wrote recently. “And, achieving a durable ceasefire will require both sides to agree to difficult but necessary concessions. This is the reason we are and will persist to create a set of possible ideas for ending this conflict drawing from input from each party of this war.”

In private, he was reportedly much more skeptical of the plan. The Republican senator Mike Rounds said recently at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had called legislators to explain that the deal was just a preliminary offer from the Russians and not an plan advocated by the White House.

“The Secretary did make a phone call to us this afternoon and I think he emphasized to us that we are the recipients of a proposal that was presented to one of our representatives,” stated Rounds. “It is not our suggestion, it is not our peace plan.”

Rubio moved quickly to fall in line. “The peace proposal was authored by the US,” he subsequently wrote. “It is presented as a strong framework for continuing discussions. The proposal is derived from input from the Russian side. However, it is also informed by earlier and current input from Ukraine.”