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America's Secretary of the Army, Dan Driscoll, was an surprising diplomat for the White House's newest proposal to end the conflict in Ukraine. His close connection with Vice President Vance has positioned a key ally of the Euroskeptic VP at the center of President Trump's latest push to conclude the conflict.

Before his last week's visit to Kyiv, Driscoll was not known as a negotiator or statesman, and his early attempts to sell the deal to European policymakers were described as chaotic.

His strong relationship with Vance, with whom he attended Yale and shares a personal bond, signal the resurgence of the non-interventionist vice-president in negotiations to resolve the Ukraine crisis.

Vance's Involvement in Peace Negotiations

This was Vance who stepped in during Volodymyr Zelenskyy rocky initial visit to the Trump White House in March and insisted he show Trump more respect. Currently, Ukraine is again resisting demands from the US to accept a swift deal that local officials have described as a capitulation.

After a tumultuous first year in power, international actions in the White House are said to be shaped by a handful of Trump's top aides, such as chief of staff Susie Wiles, conservative advisor Stephen Miller, envoy Steve Witkoff, State Department head Marco Rubio, and of course Vance.

Vance has been a vocal supporter of the latest plan, which was crafted by Witkoff and Trump's relative Jared Kushner, alongside the Kremlin envoy Kirill Dmitriev.

“Every criticism of the ceasefire plan the administration is developing either misunderstands the proposal or misrepresents some key reality on the ground,” Vance wrote.

Initial Attempts and EU Reactions

Vance's initial efforts at negotiating a peace deal with Russia, while simultaneously attempting to renew ties with Moscow, were unsuccessful and left his camp feeling frustrated with their Russian counterparts. European officials, meanwhile, were irritated by his initial speeches, in which he charged them of running from their constituents, who Vance claimed held anti-immigration and right-leaning views similar to those of Trump's own constituency.

However, the new peace deal mirrored his positions, and he has been one of the most assertive advocates for the agreement in the administration, even as the US has been under fire for accepting a ceasefire plan that largely resembles Vladimir Putin's extreme demands.

In posts this weekend, Vance argued that a peace deal would have to produce 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 dream world,” he continued. “An agreement could be made by intelligent people living in the real world.”

Additionally, it was Vance who continued on the presentation of the ceasefire proposal in a conversation with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had primarily tasked his staff with securing a signature on the ceasefire accord prior to Thanksgiving this week in the United States.

The Secretary of State's Response and Internal Concerns

Vance's stance was a distinctly more enthusiastic endorsement of the proposal than that given by the top diplomat and national security adviser, Marco Rubio, a more conventional hardliner in the government who has gone from a uncertain position inside the administration to more stable standing.

Rubio was a member of a US team that traveled to Geneva this past weekend to confer with Ukrainian leaders to help moderate the initial 28-point ceasefire proposal in order to make it more acceptable to leaders in Kyiv.

However, his initial response to the agreement was lukewarm:

“Stopping a complicated and violent conflict such as the one in Ukraine requires an thorough exchange of serious and realistic proposals,” Rubio wrote over the weekend. “And, securing a durable ceasefire will require each party to consent to difficult but essential compromises. That is why we are and will continue to develop a list of possible ideas for resolving this conflict based on input from both sides of this war.”

In private, he was said to be much more doubtful of the proposal. The Republican senator Mike Rounds said 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 plan advocated by the White House.

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

Rubio acted swiftly to fall in line. “This ceasefire plan was authored by the US,” he later stated. “The framework is offered as a strong structure for continuing discussions. The proposal is derived from input from the Moscow. But, it is additionally based on previous and ongoing input from Ukraine.”