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The US Secretary of the Army, Dan Driscoll, emerged as an unlikely diplomat for the Trump administration latest initiative to resolve the conflict in Ukraine. His close connection with JD Vance has placed a key ally of the Eurosceptic vice-president at the forefront of Donald Trump latest effort to settle the war.

Prior to his last week's visit to Kyiv, Driscoll was unrecognized as a negotiator or diplomat, and his initial attempts to sell the deal to officials in Europe were described as turbulent.

Driscoll's strong relationship with Vance, who he studied and maintains a personal bond, indicate the rising influence of the isolationist vice-president in talks to resolve the Ukraine war.

Vance's Role in Ceasefire Negotiations

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

After a tumultuous first year in office, international actions in the White House are said to be shaped by a small group of Trump's key advisers, such as top aide Susie Wiles, rightwing adviser Stephen Miller, envoy Steve Witkoff, State Department head Marco Rubio, and finally Vance.

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

“Every criticism of the ceasefire plan the White House is working on either misinterprets the proposal or misstates some key reality on the ground,” the VP stated.

Initial Efforts and European Reactions

Vance's early attempts at hammering out a peace deal with Russia, while simultaneously seeking to restore relations with Moscow, were unsuccessful and left his camp feeling disappointed with their Russian interlocutors. Leaders in Europe, meanwhile, were angered by his initial remarks, in which he charged them of running from their voters, who Vance claimed held restrictionist and conservative views close to those of Trump's own constituency.

But, the new peace deal closely resembled his stances, and he has been one of the most assertive spokespeople for the agreement in the administration, even as the US has been criticized for endorsing a peace framework that mostly resembles Vladimir Putin's maximalist terms.

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

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

It was Vance who continued on the introduction of the ceasefire proposal in a phone call with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had primarily instructed his staff with obtaining a agreement on the peace deal before Thanksgiving this week in the United States.

The Secretary of State's Reaction and Private Doubts

That was a notably more full-throated endorsement of the plan than that expressed by the secretary of state and security advisor, Marco Rubio, a more traditional hawk in the administration who has gone from a shaky position inside the White House to more stable footing.

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

However, his initial reaction to the agreement was tepid:

“Ending a complex and violent conflict such as the one in Ukraine demands an thorough discussion of substantive and pragmatic ideas,” Rubio wrote over the weekend. “And, securing a durable ceasefire will require both sides to consent to challenging but essential concessions. That is why we are and will persist to create a set of potential ideas for ending this conflict based on input from both sides of this conflict.”

Behind closed doors, he was reportedly much more doubtful of the proposal. The Republican senator Mike Rounds stated recently at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had called legislators to clarify that the deal was merely a preliminary proposal from the Russians and not an plan pushed by the White House.

“The Secretary did make a 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 delivered to one of our officials,” said Rounds. “The document is not our recommendation, it is not our ceasefire proposal.”

Rubio acted swiftly to align himself. “The peace proposal was authored by the US,” he later stated. “The framework is offered as a strong structure for ongoing discussions. It is based on feedback from the Moscow. However, it is also informed by earlier and current contributions from Ukraine.”