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America's Secretary of the Army, Dan Driscoll, emerged as an surprising diplomat for the Trump administration newest proposal to end the conflict in Ukraine. His close connection with JD Vance has placed a close associate of the Eurosceptic VP at the forefront of Donald Trump latest effort to conclude the war.

Before his last week's trip to Kyiv, Driscoll was not known as a mediator or diplomat, and his initial efforts to sell the agreement to European policymakers were described as turbulent.

Driscoll's close ties with Vance, who he studied and maintains a personal bond, signal the resurgence of the non-interventionist vice-president in talks to end the Ukraine war.

The VP's Role in Ceasefire Negotiations

It was Vance who stepped in during Volodymyr Zelenskyy rocky first trip to the Trump White House in March and demanded he show Trump more courtesy. Now, Ukraine is once again pushing back against pressure from the US to agree to a swift deal that Ukrainian leaders have called a capitulation.

After a chaotic initial year in office, foreign policy decisions in the White House are said to be 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 finally Vance.

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

“Every criticism of the peace framework the White House is developing either misunderstands the proposal or misstates some key situation on the ground,” Vance wrote.

Initial Efforts and EU Responses

Vance's initial attempts at hammering out a ceasefire agreement with Russia, while also attempting to restore ties with Moscow, were unsuccessful and left his team feeling disappointed with their Russian counterparts. Leaders in Europe, in turn, were irritated by his early remarks, in which he accused them of running from their constituents, who Vance said held restrictionist and right-leaning positions similar to those of Trump's own constituency.

But, the new ceasefire proposal closely resembled his stances, and he has been one of the most assertive spokespeople for the agreement in the administration, even as the US has been under fire for endorsing a ceasefire plan that mostly resembles 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 independence, be agreeable to each party, and stop the conflict from restarting.

“Peace won’t be made by failed negotiators or officials living in a fantasy land,” he added. “An agreement could be made by smart people operating in the real world.”

It was Vance who followed up on the introduction of the peace plan in a conversation with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had mainly tasked his staff with securing a agreement on the peace deal before Thanksgiving this week in the United States.

The Secretary of State's Response and Private Doubts

Vance's stance was a distinctly more enthusiastic support of the proposal than that given by the top diplomat and national security adviser, Marco Rubio, a more traditional hawk in the government who has gone from a uncertain position inside the White House to more firm footing.

Rubio was part of a US delegation that went to Geneva this weekend to confer with Ukrainian leaders to help moderate the original 28-point ceasefire proposal in order to make it more palatable to authorities in Kyiv.

But, his first response to the deal was tepid:

“Stopping a complicated and violent conflict such as the one in Ukraine demands an extensive discussion of serious and realistic ideas,” Rubio stated recently. “And, securing a durable ceasefire will necessitate both sides to agree to difficult but essential concessions. That is why we are and will continue to create a list of possible ideas for resolving this war based on feedback from both sides of this conflict.”

Behind closed doors, he was reportedly much more skeptical of the proposal. The Republican senator Mike Rounds said last week at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had contacted lawmakers to clarify that the agreement was merely a preliminary offer from the Russians and not an plan pushed by the White House.

“Rubio did make a phone call to us this day and I believe he made it very clear to us that we are the receivers of a offer that was delivered to one of our representatives,” said Rounds. “The document is not our suggestion, it is not our peace plan.”

Rubio acted swiftly to align himself. “The peace proposal was written by the US,” he subsequently stated. “The framework is offered as a solid framework for ongoing discussions. It is based on input from the Russian side. But, it is also based on earlier and current contributions from Ukraine.”