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America's Army Secretary, Daniel Driscoll, emerged as an surprising diplomat for the White House's latest initiative to resolve the conflict in Ukraine. His close connection with JD Vance has positioned a key ally of the Eurosceptic VP at the forefront of President Trump's recent push to conclude the conflict.

Before his last week's visit to Kyiv, Driscoll was not known as a mediator or diplomat, and his early efforts to sell the deal to European policymakers were labeled chaotic.

His close ties with Vance, with whom he studied and maintains a close friendship, indicate 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 initial visit to the Trump White House in March and demanded he show Trump more respect. Now, Ukraine is once again resisting demands from the US to agree to a quick settlement that local officials have described as a capitulation.

Following a tumultuous first year in power, foreign policy decisions in the White House are reportedly influenced by a small group of Trump's key aides, such as chief of staff Susie Wiles, conservative advisor Stephen Miller, diplomat Steve Witkoff, State Department head Marco Rubio, and finally Vance.

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

“All objection of the peace framework the administration is developing either misinterprets the proposal or misstates some key situation on the ground,” Vance stated.

Initial Efforts and EU Responses

Vance's early attempts at hammering out a peace deal with Russia, while simultaneously 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 remarks, in which he charged them of ignoring their voters, who Vance said held restrictionist and conservative positions similar to those of Trump's own constituency.

However, the new ceasefire proposal closely resembled his positions, and he has been one of the most forceful spokespeople for the agreement in the administration, even as the US has been criticized for endorsing a peace framework that largely resembles Vladimir Putin's extreme terms.

In social media updates this past weekend, Vance asserted that a peace deal would have to establish a ceasefire that respected Ukrainian independence, be acceptable to each party, and stop the conflict from resuming.

“A ceasefire won’t be made by failed diplomats or politicians living in a fantasy land,” he continued. “It could be made by intelligent people living in the actual situation.”

It was Vance who followed up on the introduction of the peace plan in a conversation with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had primarily instructed his staff with securing a agreement on the ceasefire accord before Thanksgiving this Thursday in the United States.

Rubio's Response and Private Doubts

That was a distinctly more full-throated endorsement of the plan than that given by the top diplomat and national security adviser, Marco Rubio, a more conventional hawk in the administration who has transitioned from a uncertain position inside the White House to more stable footing.

Rubio was part of a US team that went to Geneva this past weekend to meet with Ukrainian officials to help moderate 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 complicated and violent conflict such as the one in Ukraine requires an extensive discussion of serious and pragmatic ideas,” Rubio wrote over the weekend. “Furthermore, achieving a durable peace will necessitate both sides to agree to challenging but essential concessions. This is the reason we are and will persist to develop a list of potential solutions for ending this war drawing from feedback from both sides of this war.”

Behind closed doors, he was said to be much more doubtful of the plan. 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 deal was just a initial proposal from the Russians and not an plan advocated by the administration.

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

Rubio acted swiftly to align himself. “This ceasefire plan was authored by the US,” he subsequently wrote. “It is presented as a strong structure for ongoing negotiations. It is based on feedback from the Russian side. However, it is additionally informed by earlier and current contributions from Ukraine.”