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America's Secretary of the Army, Daniel Driscoll, emerged as an surprising diplomat for the White House's newest proposal to end the Russian invasion in Ukraine. His strong connection with JD Vance has placed a key ally of the Euroskeptic VP at the center of President Trump's recent push to conclude the war.

Prior to his recent trip to Kyiv, Driscoll was not known as a negotiator or diplomat, and his early efforts to promote the agreement to European policymakers were labeled turbulent.

His strong ties with Vance, with whom he attended Yale and maintains a personal bond, indicate the resurgence of the non-interventionist VP in talks to resolve the Ukraine crisis.

Vance's Involvement in Ceasefire Efforts

It was Vance who intervened during Ukraine's president's rocky first visit to the White House in March and insisted he show Trump more respect. Now, Ukraine is once again resisting demands from the US to agree to a quick settlement that Ukrainian leaders have called 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 key advisers, including top aide Susie Wiles, conservative adviser Stephen Miller, envoy Steve Witkoff, secretary of state Marco Rubio, and finally Vance.

Vance has been a vocal advocate of the latest plan, which was developed by Witkoff and Trump's relative Jared Kushner, together with the Kremlin envoy Kirill Dmitriev.

“All criticism of the peace framework the White House is working on either misunderstands the proposal or misstates some key situation on the ground,” Vance wrote.

Early Efforts and European Reactions

Vance's initial efforts at negotiating a peace deal with Russia, while simultaneously attempting to restore ties with Moscow, were fruitless and left his team feeling disappointed with their Russian counterparts. European officials, meanwhile, were angered by his early speeches, in which he charged them of running from their voters, who Vance said held restrictionist and conservative positions similar to those of Trump's own supporters.

But, the recently published ceasefire proposal closely resembled his stances, and he has been one of the most forceful advocates for the agreement in the government, even as the US has been criticized for accepting a ceasefire plan that largely echoes Vladimir Putin's maximalist demands.

In posts this past weekend, Vance argued that a peace deal would have to produce a truce that respected Ukrainian sovereignty, be acceptable to each party, and stop the conflict from resuming.

“A ceasefire will not be made by failed negotiators or officials living in a fantasy land,” he added. “An agreement could be made by intelligent people operating in the real world.”

Additionally, it was Vance who followed up on the presentation of the peace plan in a phone call with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had mainly tasked his team with obtaining a agreement on the ceasefire accord prior to Thanksgiving this Thursday in the United States.

The Secretary of State's Reaction and Internal Doubts

That was a notably more full-throated endorsement of the plan than that expressed by the secretary of state and national security adviser, Marco Rubio, a more conventional hardliner in the government who has gone from a uncertain position inside the White House to more firm footing.

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

But, his first response to the deal was lukewarm:

“Ending a complex and deadly war such as the one in Ukraine demands an thorough discussion of substantive and realistic ideas,” Rubio stated over the weekend. “Furthermore, securing a durable peace will necessitate each party to agree to difficult but essential compromises. This is the reason we are and will continue to develop a set of possible ideas for ending this war drawing from input from both sides of this conflict.”

Behind closed doors, he was reportedly much more skeptical of the proposal. The Republican senator Mike Rounds said recently at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had called lawmakers to clarify that the agreement was just a initial proposal from the Russians and not an initiative advocated by the White House.

“The Secretary did make a phone call to us this afternoon and I believe he made it very clear to us that we are the receivers of a proposal that was delivered to one of our representatives,” stated Rounds. “The document is not our suggestion, it is not our ceasefire proposal.”

Rubio moved quickly to align himself. “This ceasefire plan was written by the US,” he subsequently wrote. “It is offered as a solid 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.”