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The US Army Secretary, Daniel Driscoll, emerged as an unlikely diplomat for the White House's latest proposal to resolve the conflict in Ukraine. His strong connection with Vice President Vance has positioned a key ally of the Eurosceptic VP at the forefront of President Trump's recent push to conclude the conflict.

Prior to his last week's trip to Kyiv, Driscoll was not known as a negotiator or diplomat, and his initial efforts to promote the deal to European policymakers were labeled chaotic.

Driscoll's strong relationship with Vance, with whom he attended Yale and shares a close friendship, signal the resurgence of the non-interventionist VP in talks to end the Ukraine crisis.

Vance's Role in Peace Efforts

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

Following a tumultuous initial year in office, international decisions in the White House are reportedly influenced by a small group of Trump's top advisers, including top aide Susie Wiles, conservative advisor Stephen Miller, diplomat Steve Witkoff, State Department head Marco Rubio, and finally Vance.

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

“All objection of the peace framework the White House is working on either misinterprets the framework or misrepresents some key situation on the ground,” the VP stated.

Initial Attempts and European Reactions

Vance's early efforts at negotiating a peace deal with Russia, while simultaneously seeking to restore ties with Moscow, were fruitless and left his team feeling frustrated with their Russian interlocutors. European officials, meanwhile, were irritated by his initial remarks, in which he accused them of running from their voters, who Vance said held restrictionist and right-leaning positions similar to those of Trump's own supporters.

However, the recently published ceasefire proposal closely resembled his positions, 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 ceasefire plan that largely echoes Vladimir Putin's extreme terms.

In social media updates this weekend, Vance argued that a ceasefire agreement would have to produce a truce that respected Ukrainian sovereignty, be agreeable to each party, and prevent the conflict from resuming.

“Peace won’t be made by unsuccessful diplomats or officials living in a fantasy land,” he continued. “An agreement could be made by intelligent people living in the real world.”

Additionally, it was Vance who followed up on the presentation of the ceasefire proposal in a phone call with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had mainly tasked his staff with obtaining a agreement on the peace deal prior to Thanksgiving this Thursday in the United States.

Rubio's Response and Private Concerns

That was a notably more enthusiastic support of the plan than that given by the top diplomat and national security adviser, Marco Rubio, a more traditional hawk in the administration who has transitioned from a shaky position inside the White House to more stable footing.

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

But, his initial reaction to the agreement was tepid:

“Ending a complicated and deadly war such as the one in Ukraine requires an extensive discussion of substantive and pragmatic proposals,” Rubio stated recently. “Furthermore, securing a durable peace will require each party to consent to challenging but essential concessions. This is the reason we are and will persist to create a list of possible ideas for ending this war drawing from feedback from both sides of this conflict.”

In private, he was said to be much more skeptical of the proposal. The GOP lawmaker Mike Rounds said last week at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had contacted legislators to explain that the agreement was just a preliminary proposal from the Russians and not an plan pushed by the administration.

“The Secretary did make a phone call to us this afternoon and I believe he emphasized to us that we are the receivers of a proposal that was delivered to one of our representatives,” said Rounds. “The document is not our recommendation, it is not our peace plan.”

Rubio moved quickly to fall in line. “This ceasefire plan was authored by the US,” he later stated. “It is offered as a strong structure for continuing negotiations. It is based on input from the Russian side. However, it is also informed by earlier and ongoing input from Ukraine.”