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America's Secretary of the Army, Daniel Driscoll, was an surprising envoy for the Trump administration newest proposal to resolve the Russian invasion in Ukraine. His close connection with Vice President Vance has positioned a key ally of the Euroskeptic VP at the center of Donald Trump latest push to settle the conflict.

Prior to his last week's trip to Kyiv, Driscoll was unrecognized as a mediator or statesman, and his initial attempts to sell the deal to European policymakers were labeled chaotic.

His strong relationship with Vance, with whom he studied and shares a close friendship, indicate the rising influence of the non-interventionist VP in talks to end the Ukraine war.

Vance's Role in Ceasefire Efforts

It was Vance who intervened during Ukraine's president's disastrous first visit to the White House in March and demanded he show Trump more respect. Currently, Ukraine is again resisting demands from the US to agree to a swift deal that local officials have described as a surrender.

Following a tumultuous first year in power, foreign policy actions in the White House are said to be shaped by a handful of Trump's top aides, including chief of staff Susie Wiles, conservative advisor Stephen Miller, diplomat Steve Witkoff, secretary of state Marco Rubio, and of course Vance.

Vance has been a vocal supporter of the recent plan, which was crafted by Witkoff and Trump's relative Jared Kushner, together with the Russian diplomat Kirill Dmitriev.

“All criticism of the ceasefire plan the White House is working on either misunderstands the framework or misstates some key reality on the ground,” the VP wrote.

Initial Attempts and EU Responses

Vance's early attempts at negotiating a peace deal with Russia, while simultaneously attempting to renew relations with Moscow, were unsuccessful and left his team feeling disappointed with their Russian interlocutors. European officials, in turn, were angered by his early speeches, in which he charged them of ignoring their constituents, who Vance claimed held anti-immigration and right-leaning positions close to those of Trump's own constituency.

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

In social media updates this past weekend, Vance asserted that a ceasefire agreement would have to establish a ceasefire that respected Ukrainian independence, be acceptable to each party, and stop the war from restarting.

“A ceasefire will not be made by failed diplomats or officials living in a fantasy land,” he continued. “It could be made by intelligent people living 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 prior to Thanksgiving this week in the United States.

Rubio's Reaction and Private Concerns

That was a notably more enthusiastic endorsement of the proposal than that given by the top diplomat and national security adviser, Marco Rubio, a more conventional hardliner in the administration who has gone from a uncertain position inside the administration to more stable footing.

Rubio was a member of a US team that traveled to Geneva this weekend to meet with Ukrainian officials to help refine the initial 28-point ceasefire proposal in order to make it more palatable to authorities in Kyiv.

However, his first response to the agreement was tepid:

“Stopping a complicated and violent conflict such as the one in Ukraine requires an extensive exchange of substantive and realistic proposals,” Rubio wrote recently. “And, achieving a durable peace will require each party to consent to difficult but necessary concessions. That is why we are and will persist to create a set of potential solutions for ending this war based on input from both sides of this conflict.”

In private, he was said to be much more skeptical of the proposal. The GOP lawmaker Mike Rounds stated last week at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had called legislators to explain that the agreement was just a initial offer from the Russians and not an plan advocated by the administration.

“Rubio did make a phone call to us this afternoon and I believe he made it very clear to us that we are the recipients of a proposal that was presented to one of our representatives,” stated Rounds. “It is not our suggestion, it is not our peace plan.”

Rubio acted swiftly to fall in line. “This ceasefire plan was authored by the US,” he later wrote. “It is offered as a strong framework for ongoing discussions. The proposal is based on feedback from the Russian side. However, it is additionally based on earlier and current contributions from Ukraine.”