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The US Army Secretary, Dan Driscoll, emerged as an surprising envoy for the Trump administration latest initiative to end the conflict in Ukraine. His close connection with Vice President Vance has placed a key ally of the Euroskeptic VP at the center of Donald Trump recent push to conclude the conflict.

Before his recent trip to Kyiv, Driscoll was not known as a negotiator or statesman, and his initial efforts to promote the deal to European policymakers were described as chaotic.

Driscoll's close relationship with Vance, who he studied and maintains a close friendship, signal the resurgence of the isolationist vice-president in talks to resolve the Ukraine crisis.

The VP's Involvement in Peace Efforts

It was Vance who intervened during Ukraine's president's rocky first trip to the White House in March and insisted he show Trump more respect. Currently, Ukraine is once again pushing back against pressure from the US to accept a quick settlement that local officials have described as a capitulation.

Following a chaotic first year in office, international actions in the White House are said to be influenced by a handful of Trump's key aides, such as top aide Susie Wiles, conservative advisor Stephen Miller, envoy Steve Witkoff, State Department head Marco Rubio, and of course Vance.

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

“Every objection of the peace framework the administration is developing either misunderstands the framework or misstates some critical reality on the ground,” Vance stated.

Initial Efforts and European Responses

Vance's early attempts at negotiating a peace deal with Russia, while also attempting to restore ties with Moscow, were unsuccessful and left his camp feeling frustrated with their Russian counterparts. Leaders in Europe, in turn, were angered by his initial remarks, in which he accused them of running from their voters, who Vance claimed held restrictionist and conservative views similar to those of Trump's own supporters.

However, the recently published ceasefire proposal closely resembled his stances, and he has been one of the most assertive spokespeople for the deal in the government, even as the US has been criticized for endorsing a ceasefire plan that mostly echoes Vladimir Putin's maximalist demands.

In posts this past weekend, Vance asserted that a ceasefire agreement would have to produce a truce that respected Ukrainian independence, be acceptable to each party, and prevent the war from restarting.

“A ceasefire will not be made by unsuccessful diplomats or officials living in a fantasy land,” he continued. “An agreement could be made by intelligent people living in the real world.”

It was Vance who followed up on the introduction of the peace plan in a conversation with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had mainly tasked his team with securing a signature on the peace deal before Thanksgiving this week in the United States.

Rubio's Reaction and Internal Doubts

That was a distinctly more enthusiastic endorsement of the plan than that expressed by the top diplomat and national security adviser, Marco Rubio, a more traditional hawk in the administration who has transitioned from a shaky stature inside the White House to more firm standing.

Rubio was a member of a US team that traveled 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 authorities in Kyiv.

But, his initial reaction to the deal was tepid:

“Ending a complicated and deadly conflict such as the one in Ukraine requires an thorough discussion of substantive and pragmatic ideas,” Rubio wrote over the weekend. “Furthermore, achieving a lasting ceasefire will require each party to consent to difficult but essential compromises. This is the reason we are and will persist to create a list of possible solutions for resolving this conflict based on feedback from each party of this war.”

In private, he was reportedly much more skeptical 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 explain that the deal was just a preliminary offer from the Russians and not an initiative advocated by the White House.

“The Secretary did make a call to us this day and I think he emphasized to us that we are the recipients of a offer that was presented to one of our officials,” said Rounds. “The document is not our suggestion, it is not our peace plan.”

Rubio moved quickly to align himself. “This ceasefire plan was written by the US,” he subsequently stated. “It is offered as a strong framework for continuing negotiations. It is derived from feedback from the Moscow. But, it is additionally based on previous and current contributions from Ukraine.”