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America's Secretary of the Army, Daniel Driscoll, emerged as an unlikely envoy for the Trump administration latest initiative to resolve the conflict in Ukraine. His strong relationship with Vice President Vance has positioned a close associate of the Eurosceptic vice-president at the center of Donald Trump recent push to conclude the war.

Prior to his recent visit to Kyiv, Driscoll was not known as a negotiator or diplomat, and his initial efforts to sell the deal to European policymakers were labeled chaotic.

Driscoll's close ties with Vance, who he attended Yale and shares a close friendship, signal the rising influence of the non-interventionist VP in negotiations to end the Ukraine war.

The VP's Involvement in Peace Negotiations

This was Vance who stepped in during Volodymyr Zelenskyy rocky initial visit to the Trump White House in March and demanded he show Trump more courtesy. Now, Ukraine is once again resisting pressure from the US to accept a swift deal that Ukrainian leaders have called a surrender.

After a tumultuous first year in office, foreign policy decisions in the White House are reportedly shaped by a small group of Trump's key advisers, including top aide Susie Wiles, conservative advisor Stephen Miller, envoy Steve Witkoff, secretary of state Marco Rubio, and finally Vance.

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

“Every objection of the ceasefire plan the White House is developing either misunderstands the proposal or misstates some critical situation on the ground,” the VP stated.

Early Efforts and European Responses

Vance's early efforts at negotiating a peace deal with Russia, while simultaneously attempting to restore ties with Moscow, were fruitless and left his team feeling frustrated with their Russian counterparts. Leaders in Europe, meanwhile, were irritated by his initial remarks, in which he accused them of running from their voters, who Vance said held restrictionist and right-leaning views similar to those of Trump's own constituency.

But, the new ceasefire proposal mirrored his stances, and he has been one of the most forceful spokespeople for the agreement in the government, even as the US has been under fire for endorsing a peace framework that mostly echoes Vladimir Putin's maximalist demands.

In posts this past weekend, Vance argued that a peace deal would have to establish a ceasefire that respected Ukrainian sovereignty, be acceptable to each party, and prevent the conflict from restarting.

“Peace won’t be made by failed diplomats or officials residing in a dream world,” he added. “It could be made by intelligent people living in the real world.”

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

Rubio's Reaction and Internal Doubts

That was a distinctly more enthusiastic support of the plan than that expressed by the top diplomat and security advisor, Marco Rubio, a more traditional hardliner in the administration who has gone from a uncertain position inside the administration to more stable standing.

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

But, his initial response to the agreement was lukewarm:

“Stopping a complicated and deadly conflict such as the one in Ukraine requires an thorough discussion of serious and pragmatic ideas,” Rubio wrote over the weekend. “And, achieving a durable ceasefire will necessitate both sides to agree to difficult but necessary compromises. This is the reason we are and will persist to create a set of possible ideas for ending this conflict based on feedback from each party of this war.”

In private, he was said to be much more skeptical of the plan. The GOP lawmaker Mike Rounds stated last week at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had called legislators to clarify that the deal was just a initial proposal from the Russians and not an plan pushed by the White House.

“The Secretary did make a call to us this day and I think he emphasized to us that we are the receivers of a offer that was presented to one of our representatives,” said Rounds. “It is not our recommendation, it is not our peace plan.”

Rubio acted swiftly to align himself. “The peace proposal was authored by the US,” he subsequently wrote. “It is offered as a solid structure for continuing discussions. The proposal is based on feedback from the Russian side. However, it is also based on earlier and ongoing input from Ukraine.”