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The US Army Secretary, Daniel Driscoll, emerged as an surprising diplomat for the Trump administration newest initiative to end the conflict in Ukraine. His close relationship with Vice President Vance has placed a close associate of the Eurosceptic VP at the center of Donald Trump latest push to settle the war.

Prior to his recent trip to Kyiv, Driscoll was not known as a mediator or diplomat, and his early attempts to sell the deal to officials in Europe were labeled chaotic.

Driscoll's strong ties with Vance, who he attended Yale and maintains a close friendship, indicate the rising influence of the non-interventionist vice-president in talks to end the Ukraine war.

Vance's Involvement in Peace Efforts

This was Vance who intervened during Ukraine's president's rocky initial trip to the White House in March and demanded he show Trump more courtesy. Now, Ukraine is once again pushing back against pressure from the US to agree to a quick deal that local officials have called a surrender.

After a tumultuous first year in office, foreign policy actions in the White House are said to be shaped by a handful of Trump's key aides, including top aide Susie Wiles, conservative advisor Stephen Miller, diplomat Steve Witkoff, secretary of state Marco Rubio, and of course Vance.

Vance has been a outspoken supporter of the recent proposal, which was crafted by Witkoff and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, alongside the Kremlin envoy Kirill Dmitriev.

“All criticism of the ceasefire plan the White House is developing either misunderstands the framework or misrepresents some critical situation on the ground,” Vance wrote.

Initial Attempts and EU Responses

Vance's initial attempts at hammering out a ceasefire agreement with Russia, while also attempting to restore relations with Moscow, were fruitless and left his camp feeling disappointed with their Russian counterparts. Leaders in Europe, meanwhile, were angered by his initial speeches, in which he charged them of ignoring their constituents, who Vance claimed held restrictionist and conservative views close to those of Trump's own supporters.

However, the recently published peace deal mirrored his stances, and he has been one of the most assertive advocates for the deal in the administration, even as the US has been criticized for endorsing a ceasefire plan that largely resembles Vladimir Putin's maximalist demands.

In social media updates this past weekend, Vance asserted that a peace deal would have to produce a truce that respected Ukrainian sovereignty, be acceptable to both sides, and stop the war from restarting.

“A ceasefire won’t be made by unsuccessful negotiators or officials living in a fantasy land,” he continued. “An agreement might be made by intelligent people living in the real world.”

It was Vance who continued on the presentation of the ceasefire proposal in a conversation with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had mainly instructed his staff with securing a agreement on the peace deal prior to Thanksgiving this week in the United States.

Rubio's Reaction and Internal Concerns

Vance's stance was a notably more full-throated endorsement of the plan than that expressed by the top diplomat and security advisor, Marco Rubio, a more conventional hawk in the administration who has gone from a shaky position inside the White House to more firm standing.

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

But, his first response to the deal was lukewarm:

“Stopping a complex and deadly conflict such as the one in Ukraine demands an thorough exchange of serious and realistic proposals,” Rubio stated over the weekend. “Furthermore, securing a lasting peace will require both sides to agree to difficult but essential concessions. That is why we are and will persist to create a set of possible solutions for resolving this conflict based on feedback from both sides of this war.”

In private, he was said to be much more doubtful of the proposal. The GOP lawmaker Mike Rounds stated recently at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had called lawmakers to clarify that the agreement was merely a initial proposal from the Russians and not an initiative pushed by the administration.

“Rubio made a phone call to us this afternoon and I believe he emphasized to us that we are the receivers of a proposal that was presented to one of our officials,” said Rounds. “The document is not our suggestion, it is not our ceasefire proposal.”

Rubio acted swiftly to align himself. “The peace proposal was written by the US,” he later stated. “It is offered as a strong structure for continuing negotiations. The proposal is based on feedback from the Russian side. However, it is also informed by previous and current contributions from Ukraine.”