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The US Secretary of the Army, Daniel Driscoll, emerged as an surprising diplomat for the White House's newest proposal to resolve the conflict in Ukraine. His strong relationship with Vice President Vance has placed a close associate of the Euroskeptic VP at the forefront of Donald Trump recent push to settle the war.

Prior to his last week's visit to Kyiv, Driscoll was not known as a negotiator or statesman, and his early attempts to promote the deal to officials in Europe were described as chaotic.

Driscoll's strong relationship with Vance, with whom he attended Yale and maintains a close friendship, signal the rising influence of the non-interventionist vice-president in talks to end the Ukraine crisis.

The VP's Role in Peace Efforts

This was Vance who intervened during Volodymyr Zelenskyy rocky first trip to the Trump White House in March and demanded he show Trump more respect. Now, Ukraine is once again pushing back against demands from the US to accept a quick deal that local officials have called a surrender.

After a tumultuous initial year in office, international decisions in the White House are reportedly influenced by a small group of Trump's key advisers, such as top aide Susie Wiles, rightwing advisor Stephen Miller, envoy 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 relative Jared Kushner, alongside the Russian diplomat Kirill Dmitriev.

“All objection of the peace framework the White House is developing either misinterprets the framework or misstates some key reality on the ground,” Vance stated.

Initial Efforts and EU Reactions

Vance's initial efforts at negotiating a ceasefire agreement with Russia, while simultaneously seeking to restore ties with Moscow, were unsuccessful and left his team feeling disappointed with their Russian counterparts. Leaders in Europe, in turn, were irritated by his initial speeches, in which he accused them of ignoring their constituents, who Vance claimed held restrictionist and conservative positions close to those of Trump's own supporters.

However, the new ceasefire proposal closely resembled his positions, and he has been one of the most assertive spokespeople for the agreement in the government, even as the US has been criticized for endorsing a peace framework that mostly echoes Vladimir Putin's maximalist terms.

In posts this past weekend, Vance asserted that a peace deal would have to establish a ceasefire that honored Ukrainian sovereignty, be acceptable to each party, and prevent the war from restarting.

“Peace will not be made by failed negotiators or politicians residing in a fantasy land,” he continued. “An agreement could be made by intelligent people operating in the actual situation.”

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

Rubio's Response and Private Doubts

That was a notably more enthusiastic support of the proposal than that given by the top diplomat and security advisor, Marco Rubio, a more conventional hawk in the government who has gone from a uncertain stature inside the White House to more stable standing.

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

However, his initial response to the deal was tepid:

“Ending a complicated and deadly war such as the one in Ukraine requires an extensive exchange of serious and pragmatic ideas,” Rubio wrote recently. “And, securing a lasting peace will necessitate each party to consent to difficult but necessary compromises. That is why we are and will continue to create a list of possible solutions for ending this war based on feedback from both sides of this conflict.”

In private, he was reportedly much more skeptical of the plan. The Republican senator Mike Rounds stated recently at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had called legislators to clarify that the deal was merely a preliminary proposal from the Russians and not an plan pushed by the White House.

“The Secretary made a call to us this afternoon and I think he emphasized to us that we are the recipients of a offer that was presented to one of our representatives,” stated Rounds. “The document is not our recommendation, it is not our ceasefire proposal.”

Rubio moved quickly to align himself. “This ceasefire plan was written by the US,” he later wrote. “It is offered as a solid framework for ongoing discussions. It is based on feedback from the Russian side. But, it is also based on earlier and current input from Ukraine.”