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The US Secretary of the Army, Daniel Driscoll, emerged as an unlikely diplomat for the Trump administration latest initiative to resolve the conflict in Ukraine. Driscoll's strong connection with Vice President Vance has positioned a key ally of the Eurosceptic VP at the forefront 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 statesman, and his early efforts to promote the deal to European policymakers were labeled chaotic.

His strong relationship with Vance, with whom he attended Yale and maintains a personal bond, signal the resurgence of the non-interventionist VP in negotiations to end the Ukraine crisis.

Vance's Involvement in Ceasefire Efforts

This was Vance who intervened during Volodymyr Zelenskyy disastrous first trip to the Trump White House in March and insisted he show Trump more respect. Currently, Ukraine is once again resisting demands from the US to agree to a quick deal that Ukrainian leaders have called a surrender.

Following a chaotic first year in office, foreign policy decisions in the White House are reportedly shaped by a handful of Trump's top advisers, including top aide Susie Wiles, rightwing advisor Stephen Miller, envoy Steve Witkoff, State Department head Marco Rubio, and finally Vance.

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

“Every objection of the ceasefire plan the administration is working on either misinterprets the proposal or misstates some key situation on the ground,” the VP wrote.

Early Attempts and European Reactions

Vance's initial efforts at negotiating a peace deal with Russia, while also seeking to restore relations with Moscow, were fruitless and left his camp feeling frustrated with their Russian interlocutors. European officials, in turn, were angered by his early speeches, in which he accused them of running from their voters, who Vance said held anti-immigration and conservative views close to those of Trump's own supporters.

However, the new peace deal mirrored his stances, and he has been one of the most assertive advocates for the agreement in the government, even as the US has been criticized for endorsing a peace framework that mostly resembles Vladimir Putin's extreme demands.

In social media updates this weekend, Vance argued that a ceasefire agreement would have to produce a ceasefire that respected Ukrainian independence, be acceptable to each party, and stop the conflict from resuming.

“A ceasefire will not be made by failed diplomats or officials residing in a fantasy land,” he continued. “It could be made by intelligent people operating in the real world.”

It was Vance who continued on the introduction of the peace plan in a phone call with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had primarily tasked his staff with securing a signature on the ceasefire accord prior to Thanksgiving this week in the United States.

The Secretary of State's Response and Internal Doubts

That was a distinctly more enthusiastic endorsement of the proposal than that expressed by the top diplomat and national security adviser, Marco Rubio, a more traditional hawk in the administration who has gone from a uncertain stature inside the White House to more firm footing.

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

However, his initial reaction to the deal was tepid:

“Stopping a complicated and violent conflict such as the one in Ukraine requires an extensive discussion of serious and pragmatic ideas,” Rubio wrote recently. “Furthermore, achieving a lasting ceasefire will require both sides to agree to difficult but essential compromises. This is the reason we are and will persist to develop a list of potential ideas for ending this conflict drawing from feedback from both sides of this war.”

In private, he was reportedly much more doubtful of the plan. The Republican senator Mike Rounds said recently at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had called lawmakers to explain that the agreement was merely a initial offer from the Russians and not an initiative pushed by the administration.

“The Secretary made a phone call to us this afternoon 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 officials,” said Rounds. “It is not our recommendation, it is not our ceasefire proposal.”

Rubio moved quickly to align himself. “This ceasefire plan was authored by the US,” he later stated. “The framework is presented as a strong structure for continuing negotiations. The proposal is based on feedback from the Moscow. But, it is additionally informed by earlier and ongoing input from Ukraine.”