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The US Army Secretary, Dan Driscoll, emerged as an unlikely diplomat for the White House's newest proposal to resolve the conflict in Ukraine. His close connection with Vice President Vance has placed a key ally of the Eurosceptic vice-president at the forefront of Donald Trump latest push to conclude the war.

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

His strong relationship with Vance, who he studied and shares a close friendship, signal the resurgence of the non-interventionist vice-president in negotiations to resolve the Ukraine war.

The VP's Involvement in Ceasefire Efforts

It was Vance who intervened during Volodymyr Zelenskyy disastrous first trip to the Trump White House in March and insisted he show Trump more respect. Now, Ukraine is once again resisting pressure from the US to agree to a swift settlement that local officials have called a surrender.

Following a chaotic initial year in power, international decisions in the White House are reportedly influenced by a handful of Trump's key aides, such as chief of staff Susie Wiles, conservative adviser Stephen Miller, diplomat Steve Witkoff, State Department head Marco Rubio, and of course Vance.

Vance has been a vocal advocate of the recent plan, which was crafted by Witkoff and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, together with the Russian diplomat Kirill Dmitriev.

“All criticism of the peace framework the White House is working on either misunderstands the proposal or misstates some critical situation on the ground,” Vance stated.

Initial Efforts and EU Responses

Vance's initial attempts at hammering out a peace deal with Russia, while simultaneously attempting to restore ties with Moscow, were fruitless and left his team feeling frustrated with their Russian counterparts. European officials, in turn, were irritated by his initial speeches, in which he charged them of ignoring their voters, who Vance said held restrictionist and right-leaning views similar to those of Trump's own constituency.

However, the new peace deal mirrored his stances, and he has been one of the most forceful advocates for the deal in the administration, even as the US has been criticized for accepting a ceasefire plan that largely echoes Vladimir Putin's maximalist terms.

In social media updates this past weekend, Vance asserted that a peace deal would have to produce a ceasefire that respected Ukrainian sovereignty, be acceptable to both sides, and stop the war from resuming.

“A ceasefire won’t be made by failed diplomats or politicians residing in a fantasy land,” he added. “It could be made by intelligent people living in the real world.”

Additionally, it was Vance who followed up on the presentation of the ceasefire proposal in a conversation with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had mainly tasked his staff with obtaining a signature on the peace deal before Thanksgiving this week in the United States.

The Secretary of State's Reaction and Internal Doubts

Vance's stance was a distinctly more full-throated support of the plan than that given by the top diplomat and security advisor, Marco Rubio, a more traditional hardliner in the administration who has gone from a shaky position inside the administration to more firm footing.

Rubio was part of a US team that traveled to Geneva this weekend to meet 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 deal was lukewarm:

“Stopping a complex and deadly conflict such as the one in Ukraine requires an thorough exchange of serious and pragmatic ideas,” Rubio wrote over the weekend. “Furthermore, achieving a lasting peace will necessitate each party to agree to challenging but essential concessions. This is the reason we are and will continue to develop a list of potential solutions for ending this war drawing from input from each party of this war.”

Behind closed doors, he was said to be much more doubtful of the plan. The Republican senator Mike Rounds stated last week at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had contacted legislators to explain that the agreement was merely a initial offer from the Russians and not an plan advocated by the administration.

“Rubio did make a call to us this day and I think he made it very clear to us that we are the recipients 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. “This ceasefire plan was written by the US,” he later stated. “The framework is presented as a solid framework for continuing negotiations. The proposal is based on input from the Russian side. But, it is also informed by earlier and ongoing contributions from Ukraine.”