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The US Secretary of the Army, Daniel Driscoll, was an unlikely diplomat for the White House's newest initiative to resolve the conflict in Ukraine. Driscoll's close connection with Vice President Vance has placed a key ally of the Eurosceptic vice-president at the center of Donald Trump latest effort to conclude the conflict.

Prior to his recent visit to Kyiv, Driscoll was not known as a mediator or statesman, and his early attempts to promote the agreement to officials in Europe were labeled chaotic.

His close relationship with Vance, who he studied and shares a personal bond, signal the resurgence of the isolationist VP in negotiations to end the Ukraine crisis.

Vance's Role in Ceasefire Negotiations

It was Vance who intervened during Ukraine's president's rocky first visit to the White House in March and demanded he show Trump more courtesy. Currently, Ukraine is once again resisting demands from the US to agree to a quick settlement that Ukrainian leaders have described as a capitulation.

Following 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, including chief of staff Susie Wiles, rightwing adviser Stephen Miller, envoy Steve Witkoff, secretary of state Marco Rubio, and finally Vance.

Vance has been a vocal advocate of the latest plan, which was crafted by Witkoff and Trump's relative Jared Kushner, together with the Kremlin envoy Kirill Dmitriev.

“All objection of the ceasefire plan the administration is developing either misinterprets the proposal or misstates some critical reality on the ground,” the VP wrote.

Early Attempts and EU Reactions

Vance's early attempts at negotiating a peace deal with Russia, while simultaneously seeking to restore relations with Moscow, were unsuccessful and left his team feeling frustrated with their Russian interlocutors. Leaders in Europe, in turn, were angered by his initial speeches, in which he charged them of ignoring their constituents, who Vance said held anti-immigration and conservative views similar to those of Trump's own supporters.

But, the recently published ceasefire proposal mirrored his stances, and he has been one of the most forceful spokespeople for the deal in the government, even as the US has been under fire for accepting a peace framework that largely echoes Vladimir Putin's maximalist demands.

In social media updates this weekend, Vance argued that a ceasefire agreement would have to establish a truce that honored Ukrainian sovereignty, be agreeable to each party, and stop the conflict from restarting.

“A ceasefire won’t be made by failed diplomats or officials residing in a fantasy land,” he added. “It might be made by intelligent people living in the actual situation.”

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 staff with securing a agreement on the ceasefire accord prior to Thanksgiving this week in the United States.

Rubio's Response and Internal Doubts

That was a notably more full-throated endorsement of the plan than that given by the secretary of state and security advisor, Marco Rubio, a more conventional hawk in the government who has transitioned from a uncertain stature inside the White House to more stable footing.

Rubio was part of a US team that traveled to Geneva this weekend to confer with Ukrainian officials to help moderate the original 28-point ceasefire proposal in order to make it more palatable to authorities in Kyiv.

However, his first reaction to the agreement was tepid:

“Stopping a complex and violent conflict such as the one in Ukraine requires an thorough discussion of serious and pragmatic ideas,” Rubio stated recently. “Furthermore, securing a durable peace will require each party to consent to difficult but necessary concessions. That is why we are and will continue to develop a list of possible ideas for ending this war based on input from each party of this war.”

In private, he was said to be much more skeptical of the plan. The Republican senator Mike Rounds stated last week at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had contacted lawmakers to clarify that the deal was just a preliminary offer from the Russians and not an plan advocated by the administration.

“The Secretary did make a call to us this day and I believe he made it very clear to us that we are the receivers of a offer that was presented to one of our officials,” stated Rounds. “It is not our suggestion, it is not our peace plan.”

Rubio moved quickly to fall in line. “The peace proposal was written by the US,” he subsequently wrote. “It is presented as a solid structure for continuing discussions. The proposal is derived from input from the Moscow. However, it is additionally informed by previous and current input from Ukraine.”