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The US Secretary of the Army, Daniel Driscoll, emerged as an surprising diplomat for the White House's latest initiative to end the Russian invasion in Ukraine. Driscoll's strong relationship with Vice President Vance has placed a key ally of the Euroskeptic vice-president at the forefront of Donald Trump recent effort to settle the conflict.

Prior to his recent visit to Kyiv, Driscoll was unrecognized as a negotiator or diplomat, and his early efforts to sell the agreement to European policymakers were described as turbulent.

His close relationship with Vance, who he studied and maintains a close friendship, indicate the resurgence of the isolationist VP in negotiations to resolve the Ukraine war.

Vance's Involvement in Peace Efforts

It was Vance who stepped in during Volodymyr Zelenskyy rocky initial trip to the White House in March and insisted he show Trump more respect. Currently, Ukraine is once again pushing back against demands from the US to accept a swift deal that Ukrainian leaders have called a capitulation.

After a tumultuous initial year in office, foreign policy decisions in the White House are reportedly shaped by a small group of Trump's top aides, such as chief of staff Susie Wiles, rightwing advisor Stephen Miller, diplomat Steve Witkoff, secretary of state Marco Rubio, and finally Vance.

Vance has been a vocal supporter of the latest proposal, which was crafted by Witkoff and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, together with the Russian diplomat Kirill Dmitriev.

“All objection of the peace framework the White House is working on either misunderstands the framework or misrepresents some key reality on the ground,” Vance wrote.

Initial Efforts and European Reactions

Vance's initial efforts at negotiating a ceasefire agreement with Russia, while also attempting to renew ties with Moscow, were fruitless and left his team feeling disappointed with their Russian interlocutors. Leaders in Europe, meanwhile, were angered by his early speeches, in which he accused them of running from their voters, who Vance claimed held restrictionist and conservative positions similar to those of Trump's own supporters.

However, the new peace deal mirrored his positions, and he has been one of the most forceful advocates for the agreement in the government, even as the US has been under fire for accepting a ceasefire plan that mostly echoes Vladimir Putin's maximalist terms.

In posts this weekend, Vance asserted that a peace deal would have to produce a ceasefire that respected Ukrainian independence, be agreeable to each party, and prevent the conflict from restarting.

“A ceasefire won’t be made by unsuccessful negotiators or officials living in a fantasy land,” he added. “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 obtaining a signature on the ceasefire accord prior to Thanksgiving this week in the United States.

The Secretary of State's Response and Internal Concerns

Vance's stance was a distinctly more full-throated support of the plan than that given by the secretary of state and national security adviser, Marco Rubio, a more traditional hawk in the government who has gone from a uncertain stature inside the White House to more firm footing.

Rubio was a member of a US delegation that went to Geneva this weekend to confer 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 initial response to the deal was tepid:

“Stopping a complex and deadly conflict such as the one in Ukraine demands an thorough exchange of substantive and pragmatic proposals,” Rubio stated recently. “Furthermore, securing a lasting ceasefire will necessitate each party to consent to difficult but necessary concessions. This is the reason we are and will continue to develop a set of possible ideas for resolving this war based on input from both sides of this war.”

In private, he was said to be much more doubtful of the plan. The GOP lawmaker Mike Rounds stated last week at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had contacted legislators to clarify that the agreement was just a preliminary proposal from the Russians and not an plan pushed by the White House.

“Rubio made a call to us this day and I believe he emphasized to us that we are the receivers of a offer that was presented to one of our officials,” stated Rounds. “The document is not our recommendation, it is not our peace plan.”

Rubio moved quickly to fall in line. “This ceasefire plan was authored by the US,” he later stated. “It is presented as a solid structure for ongoing negotiations. The proposal is based on input from the Russian side. But, it is also informed by earlier and ongoing input from Ukraine.”