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The US Secretary of the Army, Dan Driscoll, was an unlikely diplomat for the White House's newest initiative to end the conflict in Ukraine. Driscoll's close connection with Vice President Vance has placed a key ally of the Euroskeptic VP at the forefront of Donald Trump latest push to conclude the war.

Before his recent visit to Kyiv, Driscoll was unrecognized as a mediator or diplomat, and his early attempts to sell the deal to European policymakers were labeled turbulent.

Driscoll's close ties with Vance, with whom he studied and maintains a close friendship, indicate the rising influence of the isolationist VP in negotiations to end the Ukraine war.

Vance's Role in Peace Efforts

This was Vance who intervened during Volodymyr Zelenskyy rocky initial visit to the White House in March and insisted he show Trump more respect. Currently, Ukraine is once again pushing back against pressure from the US to accept a quick deal that Ukrainian leaders have called a capitulation.

After a chaotic first year in power, international actions in the White House are reportedly shaped by a small group of Trump's key aides, such as top aide Susie Wiles, rightwing adviser Stephen Miller, diplomat Steve Witkoff, secretary of state Marco Rubio, and finally Vance.

Vance has been a vocal supporter of the latest plan, which was crafted by Witkoff and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, together with the Russian diplomat Kirill Dmitriev.

“Every objection of the peace framework the administration is developing either misunderstands the framework or misstates some key situation on the ground,” Vance stated.

Early Efforts and EU Reactions

Vance's early efforts at negotiating a ceasefire agreement with Russia, while also attempting to renew ties with Moscow, were fruitless and left his team feeling frustrated with their Russian interlocutors. European officials, meanwhile, were angered by his early remarks, in which he accused them of ignoring their voters, who Vance said held restrictionist and conservative 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 assertive 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 extreme terms.

In posts this weekend, Vance argued that a peace deal would have to establish a truce that honored Ukrainian sovereignty, be acceptable to each party, and stop the conflict from restarting.

“Peace will not be made by unsuccessful negotiators or officials residing in a fantasy land,” he added. “An agreement could be made by smart people operating in the real world.”

Additionally, it was Vance who continued on the presentation of the peace plan in a phone call 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

That was a notably more enthusiastic endorsement of the proposal than that given by the secretary of state and national security adviser, Marco Rubio, a more conventional hardliner in the administration who has transitioned from a shaky stature inside the White House to more firm standing.

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

But, his first response to the agreement was lukewarm:

“Stopping a complicated and violent conflict such as the one in Ukraine demands an thorough discussion of serious and pragmatic proposals,” Rubio stated recently. “And, achieving a durable peace will require each party to agree to difficult but necessary compromises. That is why we are and will persist to create a list of possible ideas for resolving this war based on input from both sides of this war.”

In private, he was reportedly much more doubtful of the proposal. The GOP lawmaker Mike Rounds stated recently at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had contacted lawmakers to clarify that the agreement was merely a preliminary proposal from the Russians and not an plan pushed by the White House.

“The Secretary did make a call to us this afternoon and I think he emphasized to us that we are the receivers of a offer that was presented to one of our representatives,” stated Rounds. “The document 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 later wrote. “It is presented as a strong structure for continuing negotiations. The proposal is derived from input from the Moscow. But, it is also based on earlier and current input from Ukraine.”