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America's Secretary of the Army, Daniel Driscoll, was an surprising diplomat for the White House's newest initiative to resolve the conflict in Ukraine. His strong relationship with Vice President Vance has positioned a key ally of the Euroskeptic vice-president at the forefront of Donald Trump latest push to conclude the war.

Prior to his last week's visit to Kyiv, Driscoll was unrecognized as a negotiator or diplomat, and his initial efforts to promote the deal to European policymakers were labeled turbulent.

His close ties with Vance, with whom he studied and maintains a close friendship, signal the rising influence of the isolationist VP in negotiations to resolve the Ukraine war.

Vance's Involvement in Ceasefire Negotiations

This was Vance who intervened during Ukraine's president's rocky initial visit to the Trump White House in March and insisted he show Trump more respect. Currently, Ukraine is once again pushing back against pressure from the US to agree to a swift settlement that local officials have called a capitulation.

Following a chaotic initial year in power, foreign policy decisions in the White House are said to be influenced by a small group of Trump's top advisers, including top aide Susie Wiles, rightwing advisor Stephen Miller, envoy Steve Witkoff, State Department head Marco Rubio, and finally Vance.

Vance has been a outspoken advocate of the latest proposal, which was developed by Witkoff and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, together with the Russian diplomat Kirill Dmitriev.

“All criticism of the ceasefire plan the White House is developing either misunderstands the framework or misrepresents some key situation on the ground,” the VP wrote.

Initial Efforts and EU Responses

Vance's early attempts at negotiating a peace deal with Russia, while also attempting to renew relations with Moscow, were fruitless and left his team feeling disappointed with their Russian counterparts. Leaders in Europe, in turn, were angered by his initial remarks, in which he charged them of running from their constituents, who Vance said held restrictionist and right-leaning views close to those of Trump's own constituency.

But, the recently published ceasefire proposal closely resembled his positions, and he has been one of the most forceful spokespeople for the deal in the administration, even as the US has been criticized for accepting a ceasefire plan that mostly echoes Vladimir Putin's maximalist demands.

In social media updates this weekend, Vance argued that a peace deal would have to produce a ceasefire that honored Ukrainian independence, be agreeable to each party, and stop the war from resuming.

“A ceasefire won’t be made by failed diplomats or politicians living 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 introduction of the peace plan in a conversation with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had primarily tasked his staff with securing a signature on the peace deal before Thanksgiving this week in the United States.

The Secretary of State's Reaction and Private Concerns

Vance's stance was a notably more full-throated support of the plan than that given by the top diplomat and security advisor, Marco Rubio, a more traditional hardliner in the administration who has transitioned from a uncertain stature inside the administration to more firm footing.

Rubio was part of a US team that went to Geneva this past weekend to meet with Ukrainian officials to help moderate the original 28-point peace plan in order to make it more palatable to authorities in Kyiv.

But, his first reaction to the deal was tepid:

“Stopping a complex and violent war such as the one in Ukraine demands an thorough exchange of substantive and pragmatic proposals,” Rubio stated recently. “Furthermore, achieving a durable ceasefire will require both sides to consent to difficult but necessary concessions. That is why we are and will persist to develop a set of possible solutions for resolving this war drawing from feedback from each party of this conflict.”

Behind closed doors, he was reportedly much more doubtful of the plan. The GOP lawmaker Mike Rounds said recently at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had called lawmakers to explain that the agreement was merely a preliminary proposal from the Russians and not an initiative advocated by the White House.

“The Secretary did make a call to us this day and I believe he emphasized to us that we are the receivers of a offer that was presented to one of our officials,” stated Rounds. “The document is not our recommendation, it is not our ceasefire proposal.”

Rubio moved quickly to align himself. “The peace proposal was authored by the US,” he later stated. “The framework is offered as a strong framework for ongoing negotiations. It is derived from feedback from the Russian side. But, it is additionally informed by previous and current contributions from Ukraine.”