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America's Army Secretary, Daniel Driscoll, was an unlikely envoy for the Trump administration newest proposal to resolve the conflict in Ukraine. His strong connection with JD Vance has placed a close associate of the Euroskeptic vice-president at the forefront of President Trump's latest push to conclude the war.

Before his last week's trip to Kyiv, Driscoll was not known as a mediator or statesman, and his early efforts to promote the agreement to officials in Europe were labeled chaotic.

His close ties with Vance, who he studied and shares a personal bond, indicate the rising influence of the isolationist vice-president in negotiations to resolve the Ukraine crisis.

The VP's Role in Ceasefire Efforts

It was Vance who intervened during Ukraine's president's rocky first trip to the White House in March and demanded he show Trump more courtesy. Now, Ukraine is again pushing back against demands from the US to accept a swift deal that Ukrainian leaders have called a capitulation.

After a chaotic first year in office, international decisions in the White House are reportedly influenced by a small group of Trump's key advisers, including top aide Susie Wiles, rightwing advisor Stephen Miller, envoy Steve Witkoff, State Department head Marco Rubio, and of course Vance.

Vance has been a vocal advocate of the latest plan, which was developed by Witkoff and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, together with the Kremlin envoy Kirill Dmitriev.

“Every criticism of the peace framework the White House is developing either misinterprets the framework or misrepresents some critical situation on the ground,” the VP stated.

Initial Attempts and EU Responses

Vance's early attempts at negotiating a peace deal with Russia, while also attempting to renew relations with Moscow, were unsuccessful and left his camp feeling frustrated with their Russian counterparts. Leaders in Europe, in turn, were irritated by his early speeches, in which he accused them of ignoring their constituents, who Vance said held anti-immigration and conservative views close to those of Trump's own constituency.

But, the new ceasefire proposal closely resembled his stances, and he has been one of the most assertive advocates for the agreement in the government, even as the US has been under fire for endorsing a peace framework that largely resembles Vladimir Putin's extreme terms.

In social media updates this weekend, Vance asserted that a peace deal would have to establish a ceasefire that honored Ukrainian sovereignty, be acceptable to both sides, and stop the conflict from restarting.

“A ceasefire will not be made by failed diplomats or politicians residing in a fantasy land,” he continued. “It might be made by smart people operating in the actual situation.”

It was Vance who followed up on the presentation of the peace plan in a conversation with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had primarily instructed his team with securing a signature on the peace deal before Thanksgiving this Thursday in the United States.

Rubio's Response and Private Concerns

Vance's stance was a distinctly more full-throated endorsement of the plan than that given by the secretary of state and national security adviser, Marco Rubio, a more traditional hardliner in the administration who has gone from a shaky position inside the administration to more firm standing.

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

But, his first response to the deal was lukewarm:

“Ending a complicated and violent war such as the one in Ukraine demands an thorough discussion of substantive and realistic proposals,” Rubio wrote recently. “And, achieving a lasting peace will necessitate both sides to agree to difficult but essential concessions. This is the reason we are and will continue to create a set of possible ideas for resolving this conflict based on input from both sides of this war.”

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

“The Secretary did make a phone call to us this afternoon and I believe he emphasized to us that we are the recipients of a proposal that was delivered to one of our representatives,” said Rounds. “The document is not our suggestion, it is not our ceasefire proposal.”

Rubio acted swiftly to fall in line. “This ceasefire plan was authored by the US,” he later wrote. “It is presented as a solid framework for continuing discussions. It is based on input from the Russian side. However, it is also based on previous and current input from Ukraine.”