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The US Secretary of the Army, Dan Driscoll, emerged as an unlikely envoy for the White House's newest proposal to end the conflict in Ukraine. Driscoll's close connection with JD Vance has placed a close associate of the Eurosceptic vice-president at the center of Donald Trump recent push to conclude the war.

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

Driscoll's strong ties with Vance, with whom he attended Yale and maintains a personal bond, indicate the rising influence of the isolationist VP in negotiations to resolve the Ukraine war.

Vance's Involvement in Peace Negotiations

This was Vance who intervened during Ukraine's president's disastrous first visit to the White House in March and insisted he show Trump more courtesy. Currently, Ukraine is again pushing back against pressure from the US to agree to a quick deal that local officials have described as a surrender.

Following a chaotic initial year in power, international actions in the White House are said to be shaped by a small group of Trump's top aides, including top aide Susie Wiles, rightwing adviser Stephen Miller, envoy Steve Witkoff, secretary of state Marco Rubio, and of course Vance.

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

“All criticism of the peace framework the administration is developing either misinterprets the framework or misrepresents some key reality on the ground,” Vance wrote.

Initial Attempts and European Reactions

Vance's early efforts at hammering out a peace deal with Russia, while also seeking to restore relations with Moscow, were fruitless and left his team feeling disappointed with their Russian interlocutors. Leaders in Europe, meanwhile, were angered by his initial remarks, in which he accused them of running from their voters, who Vance said held anti-immigration and conservative positions close to those of Trump's own constituency.

But, the recently published ceasefire proposal closely resembled his positions, and he has been one of the most forceful spokespeople for the agreement in the government, even as the US has been under fire for endorsing a ceasefire plan that largely echoes Vladimir Putin's extreme terms.

In posts this weekend, Vance argued that a peace deal would have to establish a ceasefire that respected Ukrainian sovereignty, be acceptable to both sides, and stop the conflict from resuming.

“A ceasefire won’t be made by failed diplomats or politicians residing in a fantasy land,” he continued. “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 mainly tasked his team with securing a signature on the peace deal prior to Thanksgiving this week in the United States.

The Secretary of State's Response and Internal Doubts

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

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

However, his first response to the agreement was lukewarm:

“Ending a complex and violent war such as the one in Ukraine demands an thorough exchange of substantive and realistic ideas,” Rubio stated recently. “And, achieving a lasting peace will necessitate each party to agree to difficult but essential concessions. This is the reason we are and will persist to create a list of possible solutions for resolving this war drawing from feedback from both sides of this war.”

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

“The Secretary made a call to us this day and I think he made it very clear to us that we are the receivers of a proposal that was presented to one of our representatives,” said Rounds. “It is not our suggestion, it is not our ceasefire proposal.”

Rubio moved quickly to align himself. “This ceasefire plan was authored by the US,” he later wrote. “It is presented as a solid framework for ongoing discussions. The proposal is based on input from the Russian side. But, it is additionally based on earlier and ongoing input from Ukraine.”