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America's Secretary of the Army, Daniel Driscoll, was an surprising diplomat for the Trump administration latest proposal to end the Russian invasion in Ukraine. His strong connection with JD Vance has positioned a close associate of the Euroskeptic vice-president at the forefront of Donald Trump recent push to settle the conflict.

Before his recent visit to Kyiv, Driscoll was not known as a negotiator or statesman, and his early efforts to promote the deal to European policymakers were labeled turbulent.

His close relationship with Vance, who he attended Yale and shares a personal bond, indicate the rising influence of the non-interventionist VP in talks to end the Ukraine war.

Vance's Role in Ceasefire Efforts

It was Vance who intervened during Ukraine's president's disastrous initial visit to the White House in March and demanded he show Trump more respect. Currently, Ukraine is again pushing back against pressure from the US to accept a swift settlement that Ukrainian leaders have called a surrender.

After a tumultuous first year in power, foreign policy actions in the White House are reportedly shaped by a handful of Trump's key aides, including chief of staff Susie Wiles, conservative advisor Stephen Miller, diplomat Steve Witkoff, State Department head Marco Rubio, and of course Vance.

Vance has been a vocal advocate of the latest proposal, 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 White House is working on either misunderstands the proposal or misrepresents some critical situation on the ground,” Vance wrote.

Initial Attempts and EU Responses

Vance's initial efforts at hammering out a ceasefire agreement with Russia, while also seeking to renew relations with Moscow, were fruitless and left his team feeling frustrated with their Russian interlocutors. Leaders in Europe, in turn, were angered by his early speeches, in which he charged them of ignoring their constituents, who Vance said held anti-immigration and right-leaning views similar to those of Trump's own supporters.

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

In social media updates this weekend, Vance argued that a ceasefire agreement would have to establish a ceasefire that respected Ukrainian independence, be agreeable to both sides, and prevent the conflict from resuming.

“Peace won’t be made by unsuccessful negotiators or politicians living in a dream world,” he continued. “It might be made by intelligent people living in the real world.”

It was Vance who continued on the introduction of the peace plan in a conversation with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had primarily instructed his staff with securing a signature on the ceasefire accord before Thanksgiving this Thursday in the United States.

The Secretary of State's Response and Internal Concerns

That was a notably more full-throated support of the plan than that expressed by the secretary of state and security advisor, Marco Rubio, a more conventional hardliner in the administration who has gone from a shaky position inside the White House to more stable footing.

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

But, his first response to the agreement was tepid:

“Ending a complex and violent conflict such as the one in Ukraine demands an thorough discussion of substantive and realistic ideas,” Rubio wrote recently. “And, securing a lasting peace will necessitate both sides to agree to challenging but essential concessions. This is the reason we are and will persist to create a list of potential ideas for resolving this war based on feedback from both sides of this war.”

In private, he was reportedly much more doubtful of the plan. The GOP lawmaker Mike Rounds said last week at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had contacted legislators to clarify that the deal was just a preliminary offer from the Russians and not an initiative pushed by the administration.

“The Secretary made a phone call to us this day and I believe he emphasized to us that we are the receivers of a proposal that was delivered to one of our officials,” stated Rounds. “It is not our recommendation, it is not our ceasefire proposal.”

Rubio moved quickly to align himself. “This ceasefire plan was authored by the US,” he subsequently wrote. “The framework is offered as a strong structure for ongoing negotiations. The proposal is based on input from the Russian side. However, it is also informed by previous and ongoing contributions from Ukraine.”