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America's Secretary of the Army, Dan Driscoll, was an surprising envoy for the Trump administration newest initiative to end the conflict in Ukraine. His strong relationship with Vice President Vance has positioned a close associate of the Euroskeptic vice-president at the center of President Trump's recent push to conclude the war.

Before his last week's visit to Kyiv, Driscoll was not known as a negotiator or diplomat, and his initial attempts to sell the agreement to European policymakers were labeled turbulent.

Driscoll's close ties with Vance, who he studied and maintains a close friendship, indicate the resurgence of the isolationist vice-president in talks to end the Ukraine war.

Vance's Role in Ceasefire Efforts

This was Vance who intervened during Volodymyr Zelenskyy rocky initial visit to the Trump White House in March and demanded he show Trump more respect. Now, Ukraine is again resisting demands from the US to accept a quick settlement that local officials have called a capitulation.

Following a chaotic initial year in power, international actions in the White House are reportedly influenced by a handful of Trump's key advisers, including chief of staff Susie Wiles, rightwing adviser Stephen Miller, diplomat Steve Witkoff, secretary of state Marco Rubio, and of course Vance.

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

“All objection of the peace framework the White House is working on either misinterprets the proposal or misrepresents some key reality on the ground,” Vance wrote.

Early Efforts and EU Reactions

Vance's early efforts at hammering out a ceasefire agreement with Russia, while also seeking to restore ties with Moscow, were fruitless and left his team feeling frustrated with their Russian counterparts. Leaders in Europe, meanwhile, were angered by his initial speeches, in which he accused them of running from their voters, who Vance claimed held restrictionist and conservative positions similar to those of Trump's own supporters.

But, the new peace deal closely resembled his stances, and he has been one of the most forceful advocates for the agreement in the government, even as the US has been criticized for endorsing a ceasefire plan that mostly echoes Vladimir Putin's extreme demands.

In posts this weekend, Vance asserted that a ceasefire agreement would have to establish a ceasefire that respected Ukrainian sovereignty, be acceptable to each party, and prevent the war from resuming.

“A ceasefire won’t be made by failed diplomats or officials living in a fantasy land,” he continued. “It could be made by smart people operating in the actual situation.”

Additionally, it was Vance who followed up on the presentation of the peace plan in a conversation with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had primarily tasked his team with obtaining a agreement on the peace deal prior to Thanksgiving this week in the United States.

The Secretary of State's Reaction and Internal Doubts

That was a distinctly more enthusiastic endorsement of the proposal than that expressed by the top diplomat and security advisor, Marco Rubio, a more conventional hardliner in the administration who has gone from a shaky stature inside the White House to more stable footing.

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

However, his initial reaction to the agreement was tepid:

“Stopping a complex and deadly war such as the one in Ukraine requires an thorough exchange of substantive and pragmatic proposals,” Rubio wrote over the weekend. “And, achieving a lasting peace will necessitate each party to consent to challenging but necessary concessions. That is why we are and will continue to develop a set of potential solutions for ending this conflict based on input from each party of this war.”

In private, he was reportedly much more skeptical of the plan. The Republican senator Mike Rounds stated last week at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had contacted lawmakers to explain that the deal was just a initial offer from the Russians and not an plan advocated by the administration.

“The Secretary did make a call to us this afternoon and I think he made it very clear to us that we are the recipients of a proposal that was presented to one of our officials,” stated Rounds. “The document is not our recommendation, it is not our peace plan.”

Rubio moved quickly to align himself. “This ceasefire plan was authored by the US,” he subsequently wrote. “It is offered as a solid structure for ongoing discussions. The proposal is derived from feedback from the Russian side. However, it is additionally based on previous and current input from Ukraine.”