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The US Secretary of the Army, Dan Driscoll, emerged as an unlikely diplomat for the White House's newest proposal to resolve the conflict in Ukraine. His close connection with JD Vance has placed a close associate of the Euroskeptic vice-president at the center of President Trump's latest effort to conclude the war.

Before his last week's visit to Kyiv, Driscoll was not known as a negotiator or statesman, and his early efforts to promote the agreement to officials in Europe were described as chaotic.

His strong ties with Vance, who he studied and maintains a close friendship, signal the rising influence of the isolationist VP in negotiations to resolve the Ukraine crisis.

Vance's Role in Ceasefire Negotiations

It was Vance who stepped in during Ukraine's president's rocky initial trip to the Trump White House in March and demanded he show Trump more courtesy. Currently, Ukraine is once again pushing back against demands from the US to accept a swift settlement that Ukrainian leaders have called a surrender.

After a tumultuous initial year in power, international actions in the White House are said to be shaped by a small group of Trump's top advisers, such as top aide Susie Wiles, rightwing adviser Stephen Miller, envoy Steve Witkoff, secretary of state Marco Rubio, and of course Vance.

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

“Every criticism of the ceasefire plan the administration is developing either misinterprets the proposal or misstates some key situation on the ground,” the VP stated.

Early Attempts and European Responses

Vance's initial efforts at hammering out a peace deal with Russia, while simultaneously seeking to renew relations with Moscow, were fruitless and left his team feeling frustrated with their Russian interlocutors. Leaders in Europe, meanwhile, were irritated by his early remarks, in which he accused them of ignoring their voters, who Vance said held restrictionist and conservative views close to those of Trump's own supporters.

However, the recently published peace deal closely resembled his positions, and he has been one of the most forceful advocates for the deal in the administration, even as the US has been criticized for accepting a ceasefire plan that largely resembles Vladimir Putin's extreme terms.

In posts this weekend, Vance asserted that a ceasefire agreement would have to establish a truce that honored Ukrainian independence, be agreeable to each party, and stop the war from restarting.

“Peace won’t be made by unsuccessful negotiators or politicians residing in a dream world,” he added. “An agreement could be made by smart people living in the actual situation.”

It was Vance who followed up on the introduction of the ceasefire proposal in a conversation with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had mainly instructed his team with obtaining a agreement on the ceasefire accord prior to Thanksgiving this Thursday in the United States.

Rubio's Reaction and Internal Concerns

Vance's stance was a distinctly more enthusiastic endorsement of the plan than that expressed by the top diplomat and security advisor, Marco Rubio, a more conventional hardliner in the administration who has gone from a uncertain stature inside the White House to more firm standing.

Rubio was part of a US team that traveled to Geneva this weekend to meet with Ukrainian leaders to help refine the initial 28-point peace plan in order to make it more palatable to leaders in Kyiv.

But, his first reaction to the agreement was tepid:

“Stopping a complex and violent conflict such as the one in Ukraine demands an thorough discussion of serious and realistic proposals,” Rubio wrote over the weekend. “Furthermore, achieving a durable ceasefire will require both sides to agree to difficult but necessary compromises. This is the reason we are and will continue to create a list of potential solutions for resolving this conflict based on input from both sides of this conflict.”

In private, he was said to be much more skeptical of the proposal. The Republican senator Mike Rounds said last week at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had called lawmakers to explain that the agreement was just a initial offer from the Russians and not an initiative advocated by the White House.

“The Secretary made a phone call to us this day and I think he emphasized to us that we are the recipients of a proposal that was delivered to one of our officials,” stated Rounds. “The document is not our suggestion, it is not our peace plan.”

Rubio moved quickly to align himself. “The peace proposal was written by the US,” he later wrote. “The framework is offered as a strong framework for continuing discussions. The proposal is derived from input from the Russian side. But, it is also informed by earlier and current contributions from Ukraine.”