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The US Secretary of the Army, Dan Driscoll, emerged as an unlikely envoy for the White House's newest initiative to end the conflict in Ukraine. Driscoll's strong connection with Vice President Vance has positioned a close associate of the Eurosceptic VP at the center of President Trump's latest effort to conclude the war.

Before his last week's trip to Kyiv, Driscoll was not known as a mediator or diplomat, and his early attempts to promote the deal to European policymakers were described as turbulent.

His strong relationship with Vance, who he studied and shares a close friendship, signal the rising influence of the isolationist VP in negotiations to resolve the Ukraine war.

Vance's Involvement in Ceasefire Efforts

This was Vance who intervened during Ukraine's president's disastrous initial visit to the Trump White House in March and insisted he show Trump more respect. Currently, Ukraine is once again pushing back against pressure from the US to agree to a quick settlement that local officials have called a capitulation.

After a chaotic initial year in power, international decisions in the White House are said to be shaped by a small group of Trump's key advisers, such as top aide Susie Wiles, conservative adviser Stephen Miller, envoy Steve Witkoff, State Department head Marco Rubio, and of course Vance.

Vance has been a vocal advocate of the recent proposal, which was developed by Witkoff and Trump's relative Jared Kushner, alongside the Russian diplomat Kirill Dmitriev.

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

Initial Attempts and EU Responses

Vance's early efforts at hammering out a peace deal with Russia, while simultaneously seeking to renew relations with Moscow, were unsuccessful and left his camp feeling disappointed with their Russian counterparts. European officials, meanwhile, were irritated by his early speeches, in which he accused them of running from their voters, who Vance said held anti-immigration 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 forceful advocates for the deal in the government, even as the US has been under fire for accepting a ceasefire plan that mostly echoes Vladimir Putin's maximalist demands.

In social media updates this past weekend, Vance asserted that a ceasefire agreement would have to establish a truce that respected Ukrainian independence, be acceptable to both sides, and prevent the war from restarting.

“Peace will not be made by unsuccessful diplomats or politicians residing in a fantasy land,” he continued. “An agreement could be made by smart people living in the real world.”

It was Vance who followed up on the presentation of the ceasefire proposal in a conversation with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had primarily tasked his team with securing a agreement on the peace deal before Thanksgiving this Thursday in the United States.

Rubio's Response and Private Concerns

That was a notably more full-throated endorsement of the proposal than that expressed by the secretary of state and national security adviser, Marco Rubio, a more traditional hawk in the administration who has gone from a shaky position inside the administration to more firm footing.

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 peace plan in order to make it more palatable to leaders in Kyiv.

However, his initial reaction to the agreement was tepid:

“Stopping a complex and violent conflict such as the one in Ukraine demands an thorough exchange of substantive and realistic ideas,” Rubio stated over the weekend. “And, securing a durable ceasefire will necessitate each party to consent to challenging but essential compromises. That is why we are and will persist to develop a set of possible solutions for resolving this conflict drawing from feedback from each party of this conflict.”

In private, he was said to be 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 lawmakers to explain that the deal was merely a preliminary offer from the Russians and not an initiative advocated by the White House.

“Rubio made a phone call to us this day and I think he emphasized to us that we are the receivers of a offer that was presented to one of our officials,” said Rounds. “The document is not our recommendation, it is not our peace plan.”

Rubio moved quickly to align himself. “This ceasefire plan was written by the US,” he later wrote. “The framework is presented as a strong structure for continuing negotiations. The proposal is derived from input from the Moscow. However, it is additionally informed by earlier and current contributions from Ukraine.”