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America's Secretary of the Army, Daniel Driscoll, emerged as an unlikely envoy for the White House's newest proposal to end the conflict in Ukraine. Driscoll's close connection with Vice President Vance has positioned a key ally of the Eurosceptic vice-president at the center of President Trump's recent effort to conclude the war.

Prior to his last week's trip to Kyiv, Driscoll was unrecognized as a mediator or diplomat, and his initial efforts to promote the deal to European policymakers were described as turbulent.

Driscoll's strong ties with Vance, with whom he studied and shares a personal bond, signal the rising influence of the isolationist VP in negotiations to end the Ukraine war.

Vance's Role in Peace Efforts

This was Vance who intervened during Ukraine's president's rocky first visit to the Trump White House in March and demanded he show Trump more respect. Currently, Ukraine is once again resisting pressure from the US to accept a quick settlement that Ukrainian leaders have described as a surrender.

Following a tumultuous initial year in office, international actions in the White House are said to be influenced by a handful of Trump's top aides, such as top aide Susie Wiles, conservative advisor Stephen Miller, diplomat Steve Witkoff, State Department head Marco Rubio, and of course Vance.

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

“All objection of the peace framework the White House is working on either misunderstands the proposal or misstates some critical situation on the ground,” the VP stated.

Early Attempts and European Responses

Vance's early efforts at negotiating a peace deal with Russia, while also seeking to renew ties with Moscow, were fruitless and left his team feeling disappointed with their Russian interlocutors. Leaders in Europe, in turn, were irritated by his early remarks, in which he accused them of running from their voters, who Vance said held anti-immigration and right-leaning views similar to those of Trump's own supporters.

But, the new peace deal mirrored his positions, and he has been one of the most assertive spokespeople for the agreement in the administration, even as the US has been under fire for endorsing a peace framework that largely echoes Vladimir Putin's extreme demands.

In posts this past weekend, Vance asserted that a ceasefire agreement would have to establish a truce that honored Ukrainian sovereignty, be agreeable to both sides, and stop the war from restarting.

“Peace won’t be made by unsuccessful diplomats or officials living in a dream world,” he added. “It could be made by smart people operating in the actual situation.”

Additionally, it was Vance who continued on the presentation of the peace plan in a conversation with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had mainly instructed his staff with obtaining a agreement on the peace deal before Thanksgiving this Thursday in the United States.

Rubio's Response and Internal Doubts

Vance's stance was a distinctly more enthusiastic support 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 transitioned from a shaky position inside the administration to more firm footing.

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

However, his first response to the agreement was lukewarm:

“Ending a complex and violent conflict such as the one in Ukraine demands an thorough discussion of serious and pragmatic proposals,” Rubio wrote over the weekend. “Furthermore, securing a durable ceasefire will require both sides to consent to challenging but essential concessions. This is the reason we are and will persist to create a list of possible solutions for resolving this conflict based on feedback from each party of this war.”

In private, he was said to be much more skeptical of the proposal. The Republican senator Mike Rounds stated last week at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had called lawmakers to explain that the agreement was merely a preliminary offer from the Russians and not an plan pushed by the administration.

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

Rubio moved quickly to align himself. “This ceasefire plan was authored by the US,” he later stated. “The framework is presented as a strong framework for ongoing negotiations. The proposal is derived from input from the Moscow. But, it is also informed by earlier and current contributions from Ukraine.”