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The US Secretary of the Army, Daniel Driscoll, was an surprising diplomat for the Trump administration latest proposal to resolve the Russian invasion in Ukraine. Driscoll's strong connection with JD Vance has placed a key ally of the Eurosceptic vice-president at the forefront of Donald Trump recent effort to settle the war.

Before his recent trip to Kyiv, Driscoll was not known as a mediator or diplomat, and his initial attempts to promote the agreement to European policymakers were described as turbulent.

Driscoll's close relationship with Vance, who he studied and shares a close friendship, signal the rising influence of the non-interventionist vice-president in talks to end the Ukraine crisis.

The VP's Involvement in Peace Negotiations

It was Vance who stepped in during Volodymyr Zelenskyy disastrous first visit to the White House in March and demanded he show Trump more respect. Currently, Ukraine is again resisting pressure from the US to agree to a quick settlement that local officials have called a capitulation.

After a tumultuous initial year in power, foreign policy decisions in the White House are reportedly influenced by a small group of Trump's key aides, including top aide Susie Wiles, conservative advisor Stephen Miller, envoy Steve Witkoff, State Department head Marco Rubio, and of course Vance.

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

“All criticism of the ceasefire plan the administration is developing either misinterprets the proposal or misstates some critical situation on the ground,” Vance stated.

Early Attempts and European Reactions

Vance's early attempts at negotiating a peace deal with Russia, while simultaneously attempting to renew ties with Moscow, were fruitless and left his camp feeling disappointed with their Russian counterparts. Leaders in Europe, in turn, were angered by his early speeches, in which he charged them of ignoring their voters, who Vance claimed held anti-immigration and conservative views similar to those of Trump's own constituency.

However, the recently published peace deal mirrored his positions, and he has been one of the most assertive advocates for the deal in the administration, even as the US has been under fire for accepting a ceasefire plan that mostly resembles Vladimir Putin's extreme terms.

In social media updates this past weekend, Vance asserted that a ceasefire agreement would have to produce a truce that honored Ukrainian independence, be agreeable to both sides, and prevent the war from resuming.

“Peace won’t be made by failed negotiators or politicians residing in a fantasy land,” he continued. “It might be made by intelligent people living in the actual situation.”

It was Vance who continued on the introduction of the ceasefire proposal in a conversation with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had mainly tasked his team with securing a agreement on the peace deal prior to Thanksgiving this week in the United States.

Rubio's Response and Private Doubts

Vance's stance was a notably more enthusiastic support of the plan than that expressed by the top diplomat and security advisor, Marco Rubio, a more conventional hardliner in the government who has transitioned from a uncertain stature inside the administration to more stable footing.

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

However, his initial response to the deal was lukewarm:

“Stopping a complicated and deadly conflict such as the one in Ukraine demands an extensive exchange of substantive and pragmatic proposals,” Rubio wrote over the weekend. “And, achieving a durable ceasefire will necessitate each party to agree to challenging but essential concessions. That is why we are and will continue to create a list of potential solutions for ending this war based on input from both sides of this war.”

In private, he was said to be much more doubtful of the proposal. The GOP lawmaker 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 just a preliminary proposal from the Russians and not an plan advocated by the White House.

“The Secretary 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 officials,” stated Rounds. “It is not our suggestion, it is not our ceasefire proposal.”

Rubio acted swiftly to fall in line. “The peace proposal was authored by the US,” he subsequently stated. “It is presented as a strong framework for ongoing negotiations. The proposal is based on input from the Moscow. But, it is additionally based on previous and ongoing input from Ukraine.”