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The US Army Secretary, Dan Driscoll, was an surprising diplomat for the Trump administration newest proposal to end the conflict in Ukraine. His strong connection with JD Vance has placed a key ally of the Euroskeptic vice-president at the forefront of Donald Trump recent push to settle the war.

Before his last week's trip to Kyiv, Driscoll was not known as a negotiator or diplomat, and his initial efforts to sell the deal to officials in Europe were described as turbulent.

His strong ties with Vance, with whom he studied and shares a close friendship, signal the resurgence of the non-interventionist vice-president in talks to end the Ukraine crisis.

The VP's Involvement in Peace Efforts

It was Vance who intervened during Ukraine's president's disastrous initial trip to the Trump White House in March and demanded he show Trump more respect. Currently, Ukraine is once again pushing back against pressure from the US to accept a swift settlement that local officials have described as a surrender.

Following a chaotic initial year in power, foreign policy actions in the White House are reportedly shaped by a small group of Trump's key advisers, such as chief of staff Susie Wiles, conservative adviser 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, together with the Kremlin envoy Kirill Dmitriev.

“All criticism of the ceasefire plan the administration is developing either misunderstands the framework or misrepresents some key reality on the ground,” Vance wrote.

Initial Attempts and European Responses

Vance's initial attempts at negotiating a peace deal with Russia, while simultaneously attempting to renew relations with Moscow, were fruitless and left his team feeling frustrated with their Russian counterparts. Leaders in Europe, in turn, were angered by his early remarks, in which he accused them of ignoring their voters, who Vance said held restrictionist and conservative views similar to those of Trump's own supporters.

But, the new peace deal closely resembled his positions, and he has been one of the most forceful advocates for the deal in the administration, even as the US has been under fire for accepting a peace framework that largely echoes Vladimir Putin's maximalist terms.

In posts this past weekend, Vance argued that a peace deal would have to produce a truce that respected Ukrainian independence, be acceptable to both sides, and prevent the conflict from restarting.

“A ceasefire won’t be made by failed negotiators or officials residing in a fantasy land,” he added. “It might be made by intelligent people operating in the real world.”

Additionally, it was Vance who continued on the presentation of the peace plan in a phone call with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had mainly instructed his team with securing a agreement on the ceasefire accord prior to Thanksgiving this week in the United States.

The Secretary of State's Reaction and Private Doubts

Vance's stance was a distinctly more enthusiastic endorsement of the proposal than that given by the secretary of state and security advisor, Marco Rubio, a more traditional hardliner in the administration who has gone from a shaky position inside the White House to more stable footing.

Rubio was part of a US delegation that went to Geneva this past weekend to confer with Ukrainian leaders to help moderate the initial 28-point ceasefire proposal in order to make it more palatable to authorities in Kyiv.

But, his first response to the agreement was tepid:

“Stopping a complicated and deadly war such as the one in Ukraine requires an thorough discussion of serious and realistic proposals,” Rubio stated over the weekend. “Furthermore, achieving a durable peace will necessitate each party to agree to challenging but necessary compromises. That is why we are and will persist to develop a list of possible ideas for ending this conflict drawing from input from each party of this conflict.”

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

“The Secretary made a call to us this afternoon and I believe he made it very clear to us that we are the receivers of a offer 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 written by the US,” he subsequently stated. “The framework is presented as a solid framework for continuing negotiations. It is based on feedback from the Moscow. However, it is additionally informed by previous and ongoing contributions from Ukraine.”