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America's Army Secretary, Daniel Driscoll, emerged as an unlikely diplomat for the White House's newest proposal to resolve the conflict in Ukraine. His close relationship with Vice President Vance has positioned a key ally of the Euroskeptic vice-president at the center of President Trump's latest effort to settle the conflict.

Before his last week's visit to Kyiv, Driscoll was not known as a mediator or statesman, and his initial efforts to promote the deal to officials in Europe were labeled chaotic.

His close ties with Vance, who he studied and shares a personal bond, indicate the resurgence of the isolationist vice-president in talks to end the Ukraine crisis.

The VP's Role in Peace Efforts

It was Vance who stepped in during Ukraine's president's rocky initial trip to the White House in March and demanded he show Trump more respect. Currently, Ukraine is once again pushing back against pressure from the US to agree to a quick settlement that local officials have described as a capitulation.

After a tumultuous first year in office, international actions in the White House are reportedly influenced by a handful of Trump's key advisers, including chief of staff Susie Wiles, conservative advisor Stephen Miller, diplomat Steve Witkoff, secretary of state Marco Rubio, and of course Vance.

Vance has been a outspoken supporter of the latest proposal, which was crafted by Witkoff and Trump's relative Jared Kushner, together with the Russian diplomat Kirill Dmitriev.

“Every criticism of the peace framework the White House is developing either misinterprets the proposal or misrepresents some key reality on the ground,” the VP stated.

Early Efforts and European Reactions

Vance's early efforts at negotiating a peace deal with Russia, while simultaneously seeking to restore relations with Moscow, were fruitless and left his camp feeling disappointed with their Russian interlocutors. Leaders in Europe, meanwhile, were irritated by his early speeches, in which he accused them of ignoring their constituents, who Vance said held restrictionist and conservative views similar to those of Trump's own supporters.

However, the recently published ceasefire proposal mirrored his stances, and he has been one of the most assertive advocates for the agreement in the administration, even as the US has been criticized for accepting a ceasefire plan that mostly echoes Vladimir Putin's maximalist demands.

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

“Peace will not be made by failed diplomats or officials residing in a fantasy land,” he added. “It might be made by intelligent people operating in the actual situation.”

Additionally, it was Vance who continued on the presentation of the ceasefire proposal in a conversation with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had mainly tasked his staff with obtaining a agreement 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 notably more full-throated endorsement of the plan than that given by the top diplomat and security advisor, Marco Rubio, a more traditional hawk in the government who has gone from a uncertain stature inside the administration to more firm standing.

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

But, his initial reaction to the agreement was tepid:

“Ending a complicated and deadly war such as the one in Ukraine demands an extensive exchange of serious and pragmatic proposals,” Rubio wrote recently. “Furthermore, achieving a durable ceasefire will require both sides to agree to difficult but necessary compromises. That is why we are and will continue to develop a set of possible ideas for resolving this conflict drawing from input from each party of this war.”

In private, he was said to be much more doubtful of the proposal. The Republican senator Mike Rounds stated recently at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had called legislators to clarify that the agreement was merely a preliminary proposal from the Russians and not an plan pushed by the White House.

“Rubio did make a phone call to us this afternoon and I think he emphasized to us that we are the recipients of a offer that was presented to one of our representatives,” said Rounds. “The document is not our suggestion, it is not our peace plan.”

Rubio acted swiftly to fall in line. “This ceasefire plan was written by the US,” he subsequently wrote. “The framework is offered as a strong structure for continuing negotiations. The proposal is based on feedback from the Moscow. However, it is also based on earlier and ongoing input from Ukraine.”