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America's Army Secretary, Dan Driscoll, emerged as an unlikely diplomat for the White House's latest proposal to resolve the Russian invasion in Ukraine. Driscoll's close relationship with Vice President Vance has placed a key ally of the Euroskeptic vice-president at the forefront of Donald Trump latest push to settle the war.

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

Driscoll's strong relationship with Vance, with whom he studied and maintains a personal bond, indicate the resurgence of the isolationist VP in talks to end the Ukraine war.

Vance's Role in Peace Efforts

It was Vance who stepped in during Volodymyr Zelenskyy rocky first visit to the Trump 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 Ukrainian leaders have called a capitulation.

After a tumultuous first year in office, foreign policy actions in the White House are said to be influenced by a handful of Trump's key aides, such as chief of staff Susie Wiles, conservative adviser Stephen Miller, diplomat Steve Witkoff, State Department head Marco Rubio, and finally Vance.

Vance has been a outspoken advocate of the recent proposal, which was developed by Witkoff and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, together with the Russian diplomat Kirill Dmitriev.

“All criticism of the ceasefire plan the White House is working on either misinterprets the framework or misstates some key situation on the ground,” Vance stated.

Early Efforts and EU Responses

Vance's initial attempts at negotiating a peace deal with Russia, while also attempting to renew ties with Moscow, were unsuccessful and left his team feeling frustrated with their Russian interlocutors. European officials, meanwhile, were angered by his initial speeches, in which he charged them of running from their voters, who Vance said held anti-immigration and conservative positions similar to those of Trump's own constituency.

But, the recently published peace deal 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 accepting a ceasefire plan that largely resembles Vladimir Putin's maximalist demands.

In social media updates this past weekend, Vance argued that a ceasefire agreement would have to produce a truce that respected Ukrainian independence, be agreeable to each party, and stop the war from restarting.

“A ceasefire won’t be made by failed negotiators or politicians residing in a dream world,” he continued. “It could be made by smart people operating in the actual situation.”

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

Rubio's Response and Private Concerns

Vance's stance was a notably more enthusiastic support of the plan than that given by the secretary of state and national security adviser, Marco Rubio, a more traditional hardliner in the government who has transitioned from a shaky position inside the White House to more stable footing.

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

But, his first response to the agreement was lukewarm:

“Ending a complex and deadly war such as the one in Ukraine requires an extensive discussion of substantive and pragmatic ideas,” Rubio stated recently. “Furthermore, securing a durable peace will require each party to consent to difficult but essential compromises. This is the reason we are and will continue to develop a list of possible solutions for ending this conflict drawing from input from both sides of this war.”

Behind closed doors, he was said to be much more skeptical of the proposal. The GOP lawmaker Mike Rounds stated recently at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had contacted legislators to explain that the agreement was merely a initial offer from the Russians and not an initiative pushed by the administration.

“Rubio made a call to us this afternoon and I believe he made it very clear to us that we are the recipients of a offer that was presented to one of our representatives,” said Rounds. “It is not our recommendation, it is not our ceasefire proposal.”

Rubio moved quickly to align himself. “The peace proposal was written by the US,” he subsequently wrote. “The framework is presented as a solid structure for ongoing discussions. The proposal is based on feedback from the Russian side. But, it is additionally informed by previous and current input from Ukraine.”