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America's Secretary of the Army, Dan Driscoll, was an surprising diplomat for the Trump administration newest initiative to resolve the conflict in Ukraine. Driscoll's close relationship with JD Vance has positioned a key ally of the Eurosceptic VP at the forefront of Donald Trump latest push to settle the war.

Prior to his last week's trip to Kyiv, Driscoll was unrecognized as a negotiator or statesman, and his early efforts to sell the agreement to European policymakers were labeled chaotic.

Driscoll's strong ties with Vance, who he studied and shares a close friendship, indicate the rising influence of the isolationist VP in talks to end the Ukraine war.

The VP's Involvement in Ceasefire Efforts

This was Vance who intervened during Ukraine's president's rocky initial visit to the Trump White House in March and insisted he show Trump more respect. Currently, Ukraine is again resisting pressure from the US to accept a quick deal that local officials have called a capitulation.

After a tumultuous initial year in power, foreign policy decisions in the White House are reportedly shaped by a small group of Trump's top aides, such as chief of staff Susie Wiles, conservative adviser Stephen Miller, envoy Steve Witkoff, secretary of state Marco Rubio, and finally Vance.

Vance has been a vocal advocate of the recent proposal, which was crafted by Witkoff and Trump's relative Jared Kushner, together with the Kremlin envoy Kirill Dmitriev.

“All objection of the peace framework the administration is working on either misunderstands the proposal or misstates some critical reality on the ground,” the VP stated.

Early Efforts and European Reactions

Vance's early attempts at hammering out a ceasefire agreement with Russia, while also seeking to renew 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 charged them of ignoring their voters, who Vance said held restrictionist and conservative positions similar to those of Trump's own supporters.

But, the new ceasefire proposal closely resembled his stances, and he has been one of the most assertive spokespeople for the agreement in the administration, even as the US has been under fire for accepting a peace framework that mostly resembles Vladimir Putin's maximalist terms.

In social media updates this weekend, Vance asserted that a peace deal would have to produce a truce that honored Ukrainian independence, be agreeable to both sides, and stop the conflict from resuming.

“Peace won’t be made by failed negotiators or politicians residing in a dream world,” he added. “It could be made by smart people operating in the real world.”

It was Vance who continued on the presentation of the ceasefire proposal in a phone call with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had primarily tasked his staff with obtaining a agreement on the ceasefire accord before Thanksgiving this Thursday in the United States.

The Secretary of State's Reaction and Internal Doubts

That was a distinctly more full-throated support of the proposal than that expressed by the top diplomat and security advisor, Marco Rubio, a more traditional hawk in the government who has gone from a shaky stature inside the White House to more stable standing.

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

But, his first reaction to the agreement was tepid:

“Stopping a complicated and violent conflict such as the one in Ukraine requires an extensive discussion of substantive and pragmatic ideas,” Rubio stated over the weekend. “And, securing a durable ceasefire will necessitate each party to agree to challenging but essential concessions. That is why we are and will continue to create a list of potential ideas for resolving this war based on input from each party of this war.”

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

“The Secretary made a call to us this afternoon and I think 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 suggestion, it is not our ceasefire proposal.”

Rubio moved quickly to fall in line. “The peace proposal was written by the US,” he subsequently wrote. “The framework is offered as a strong framework for continuing negotiations. It is based on feedback from the Moscow. But, it is also informed by previous and current input from Ukraine.”