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The US Secretary of the Army, Daniel Driscoll, emerged as an unlikely diplomat for the White House's newest initiative to end the conflict in Ukraine. His close connection with JD Vance has placed a close associate of the Euroskeptic vice-president at the center of President Trump's latest effort to settle the war.

Before his recent trip to Kyiv, Driscoll was not known as a negotiator or diplomat, and his early efforts to sell the agreement to European policymakers were labeled turbulent.

Driscoll's strong ties with Vance, with whom he attended Yale and shares a personal bond, signal the rising influence of the non-interventionist vice-president in talks to end the Ukraine crisis.

Vance's Role in Ceasefire Negotiations

This was Vance who stepped in during Ukraine's president's disastrous first trip to the Trump White House in March and insisted he show Trump more respect. Currently, Ukraine is again pushing back against pressure from the US to accept a swift deal that local officials have described as a surrender.

Following a tumultuous initial year in power, foreign policy actions in the White House are reportedly influenced by a small group of Trump's top advisers, including top aide Susie Wiles, rightwing adviser Stephen Miller, diplomat Steve Witkoff, secretary of state Marco Rubio, and finally Vance.

Vance has been a vocal advocate of the recent plan, which was developed by Witkoff and Trump's relative Jared Kushner, alongside the Kremlin envoy Kirill Dmitriev.

“Every criticism of the peace framework the administration is working on either misinterprets the framework or misstates some critical reality on the ground,” Vance wrote.

Initial Efforts and European Responses

Vance's initial attempts at hammering out a peace deal with Russia, while simultaneously attempting to renew relations with Moscow, were fruitless and left his camp feeling disappointed with their Russian counterparts. European officials, meanwhile, were irritated by his early speeches, in which he charged them of ignoring their constituents, who Vance claimed held anti-immigration and conservative positions similar to those of Trump's own supporters.

But, the recently published ceasefire proposal mirrored his positions, and he has been one of the most forceful advocates for the agreement in the administration, even as the US has been criticized for endorsing a peace framework that largely resembles Vladimir Putin's extreme terms.

In posts this weekend, Vance argued that a peace deal would have to establish a truce that respected Ukrainian sovereignty, be acceptable to each party, and stop the conflict from resuming.

“Peace will not be made by failed diplomats or officials living in a dream world,” he added. “It could be made by intelligent people operating in the real world.”

It was Vance who followed up on the introduction of the ceasefire proposal in a phone call with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had mainly tasked his team with obtaining a agreement on the ceasefire accord before Thanksgiving this Thursday in the United States.

The Secretary of State's Reaction and Internal Concerns

That was a notably more enthusiastic support of the proposal than that expressed by the top diplomat and national security adviser, Marco Rubio, a more traditional hardliner in the government who has transitioned from a uncertain position inside the White House to more stable standing.

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

However, his first reaction to the deal was tepid:

“Stopping a complicated and violent conflict such as the one in Ukraine demands an thorough exchange of serious and pragmatic proposals,” Rubio stated recently. “Furthermore, securing a durable peace will require each party to consent to difficult but essential compromises. That is why we are and will persist to develop a list of possible solutions for ending this war based on feedback from both sides of this conflict.”

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

“The Secretary made a phone call to us this day and I believe he emphasized to us that we are the receivers of a proposal that was presented to one of our representatives,” stated Rounds. “It is not our suggestion, it is not our peace plan.”

Rubio moved quickly to fall in line. “The peace proposal was authored by the US,” he later wrote. “The framework is offered as a solid framework for continuing discussions. The proposal is derived from input from the Russian side. However, it is also informed by earlier and ongoing contributions from Ukraine.”