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America's Army Secretary, Dan Driscoll, was an unlikely envoy for the Trump administration newest proposal to end the conflict in Ukraine. His strong relationship with JD Vance has placed a close associate of the Eurosceptic VP at the center of Donald Trump latest effort to settle the conflict.

Prior to his recent visit to Kyiv, Driscoll was not known as a mediator or statesman, and his early efforts to promote the deal to officials in Europe were labeled turbulent.

His close ties with Vance, who he attended Yale and shares a personal bond, signal the rising influence of the non-interventionist vice-president in negotiations to end the Ukraine war.

The VP's Involvement in Ceasefire Negotiations

It was Vance who stepped in during Ukraine's president's disastrous initial trip to the White House in March and insisted he show Trump more courtesy. Currently, Ukraine is once again pushing back against pressure from the US to agree to a quick deal that local officials have called a surrender.

After a tumultuous first year in power, international decisions in the White House are said to be influenced by a handful of Trump's top aides, such as chief of staff Susie Wiles, conservative advisor Stephen Miller, envoy Steve Witkoff, secretary of state Marco Rubio, and of course Vance.

Vance has been a vocal advocate of the latest proposal, which was developed by Witkoff and Trump's relative Jared Kushner, together with the Kremlin envoy Kirill Dmitriev.

“Every objection of the ceasefire plan the administration is working on either misunderstands the framework or misrepresents some critical reality on the ground,” Vance wrote.

Initial Attempts and EU Reactions

Vance's initial attempts 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 counterparts. European officials, in turn, were angered by his early speeches, in which he accused them of running from their constituents, who Vance claimed held restrictionist and conservative positions close to those of Trump's own supporters.

But, the recently published ceasefire proposal closely resembled 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 endorsing a ceasefire plan that largely resembles Vladimir Putin's maximalist demands.

In posts this weekend, Vance asserted that a peace deal would have to produce a truce that honored Ukrainian independence, be acceptable to both sides, and prevent the conflict from resuming.

“A ceasefire won’t be made by unsuccessful negotiators or officials residing in a dream world,” he added. “An agreement might be made by smart people living in the real world.”

It was Vance who followed up on the presentation of the peace plan in a phone call with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had mainly instructed his team with obtaining a agreement on the ceasefire accord prior to Thanksgiving this week in the United States.

Rubio's Reaction and Internal Doubts

Vance's stance was a distinctly more enthusiastic endorsement of the proposal than that expressed by the secretary of state and national security adviser, Marco Rubio, a more traditional hardliner in the government who has gone from a shaky stature inside the administration to more stable standing.

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

However, his initial reaction to the deal was lukewarm:

“Ending a complex and deadly war such as the one in Ukraine demands an thorough exchange of serious and realistic ideas,” Rubio wrote recently. “And, achieving a lasting peace will require each party to consent to challenging but essential concessions. That is why we are and will continue to develop a set of possible ideas for resolving this conflict drawing from feedback from each party of this war.”

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

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

Rubio acted swiftly to fall in line. “This ceasefire plan was authored by the US,” he subsequently wrote. “It is presented as a solid framework for continuing negotiations. The proposal is based on feedback from the Russian side. But, it is also informed by earlier and current contributions from Ukraine.”