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America's Secretary of the Army, Dan Driscoll, emerged as an unlikely diplomat for the Trump administration latest initiative to end the conflict in Ukraine. Driscoll's strong relationship with Vice President Vance has positioned a close associate of the Eurosceptic VP at the forefront of President Trump's recent push to settle the war.

Before his recent trip to Kyiv, Driscoll was not known as a mediator or diplomat, and his initial efforts to sell the agreement to officials in Europe were described as chaotic.

His close ties with Vance, with whom he attended Yale and maintains a close friendship, indicate the resurgence of the non-interventionist vice-president in talks to resolve the Ukraine war.

Vance's Involvement in Ceasefire Efforts

This was Vance who intervened during Ukraine's president's rocky first visit to the Trump White House in March and insisted he show Trump more respect. Now, Ukraine is again resisting demands from the US to agree to a quick settlement that Ukrainian leaders have described as a surrender.

After a tumultuous first year in power, foreign policy actions in the White House are reportedly influenced by a handful of Trump's top aides, such as top aide Susie Wiles, rightwing advisor Stephen Miller, diplomat Steve Witkoff, secretary of state Marco Rubio, and of course Vance.

Vance has been a vocal advocate of the latest proposal, which was developed by Witkoff and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, alongside the Kremlin envoy Kirill Dmitriev.

“Every criticism of the peace framework the administration is working on either misunderstands the proposal or misrepresents some key reality on the ground,” Vance wrote.

Initial Efforts and EU Responses

Vance's early attempts at hammering out a peace deal with Russia, while simultaneously seeking to restore ties with Moscow, were fruitless and left his team feeling disappointed with their Russian counterparts. Leaders in Europe, meanwhile, were irritated by his early remarks, in which he accused them of running from their voters, who Vance claimed held restrictionist and right-leaning views similar to those of Trump's own supporters.

However, the recently published peace deal mirrored his stances, and he has been one of the most forceful spokespeople for the agreement in the government, even as the US has been under fire for accepting a peace framework that largely resembles Vladimir Putin's extreme terms.

In posts this past weekend, Vance argued that a peace deal would have to produce a truce that respected Ukrainian sovereignty, be agreeable to both sides, and stop the war from restarting.

“A ceasefire won’t be made by failed negotiators or officials living in a fantasy land,” he added. “An agreement might be made by smart people living in the actual situation.”

Additionally, it was Vance who followed up on the introduction of the peace plan in a conversation with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had mainly tasked his staff with obtaining a signature on the ceasefire accord prior to Thanksgiving this Thursday in the United States.

Rubio's Reaction and Internal Concerns

Vance's stance was a notably more enthusiastic endorsement of the plan than that given by the secretary of state and security advisor, Marco Rubio, a more conventional hardliner in the administration who has gone from a shaky stature inside the administration to more stable standing.

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

However, his first response to the agreement was lukewarm:

“Stopping a complex and violent war such as the one in Ukraine demands an extensive discussion of serious and pragmatic ideas,” Rubio stated over the weekend. “And, securing a durable ceasefire will necessitate each party to consent to difficult but essential compromises. That is why we are and will persist to create a set of possible ideas for resolving this war drawing from input from both sides of this war.”

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 offer from the Russians and not an initiative pushed by the White House.

“Rubio did make a 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 officials,” said Rounds. “The document is not our recommendation, it is not our ceasefire proposal.”

Rubio acted swiftly to align himself. “The peace proposal was written by the US,” he subsequently wrote. “The framework is presented as a solid framework for ongoing negotiations. The proposal is based on feedback from the Moscow. However, it is additionally informed by earlier and current contributions from Ukraine.”