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The US Army Secretary, Dan Driscoll, was an surprising diplomat for the Trump administration newest proposal to resolve the Russian invasion in Ukraine. His strong connection with JD Vance has positioned a close associate of the Eurosceptic vice-president at the forefront of Donald Trump recent push to settle the war.

Prior to his recent trip to Kyiv, Driscoll was not known as a mediator or statesman, and his early attempts to sell the agreement to European policymakers were labeled chaotic.

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

The VP's Role in Ceasefire Negotiations

It was Vance who stepped in during Ukraine's president's rocky first trip to the Trump White House in March and demanded he show Trump more courtesy. Currently, Ukraine is once again resisting demands from the US to agree to a quick settlement that Ukrainian leaders have called a capitulation.

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

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

“All objection of the peace framework the White House is developing either misinterprets the framework or misstates some critical reality on the ground,” the VP wrote.

Initial Efforts and EU Reactions

Vance's initial efforts at hammering out a ceasefire agreement with Russia, while simultaneously attempting to restore ties with Moscow, were fruitless and left his team feeling disappointed with their Russian interlocutors. European officials, meanwhile, were irritated by his early speeches, in which he charged them of ignoring their voters, who Vance said held restrictionist and right-leaning views close to those of Trump's own constituency.

However, the new peace deal mirrored his positions, and he has been one of the most forceful spokespeople for the deal in the government, even as the US has been criticized for accepting a peace framework that mostly resembles Vladimir Putin's maximalist demands.

In social media updates this weekend, Vance asserted that a peace deal would have to produce a truce that respected Ukrainian independence, be acceptable to each party, and prevent the conflict from resuming.

“Peace won’t be made by failed negotiators or politicians residing in a fantasy land,” he continued. “An agreement could be made by smart people living in the actual situation.”

It was Vance who continued on the presentation of the peace plan in a conversation with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had primarily instructed his team with obtaining a signature on the peace deal prior to Thanksgiving this week in the United States.

The Secretary of State's Reaction and Internal Concerns

That was a distinctly more full-throated endorsement of the proposal than that given by the top diplomat and security advisor, Marco Rubio, a more traditional hawk in the administration who has transitioned from a uncertain stature inside the administration to more stable standing.

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

But, his first response to the agreement was lukewarm:

“Stopping a complicated and violent conflict such as the one in Ukraine demands an thorough exchange of substantive and realistic proposals,” Rubio wrote over the weekend. “And, achieving a durable peace will require both sides to consent to difficult but necessary concessions. This is the reason we are and will continue to develop a set of potential solutions for ending this war based on feedback from each party of this conflict.”

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

“The Secretary did make a call to us this afternoon and I believe he made it very clear to us that we are the receivers of a offer that was delivered to one of our representatives,” stated Rounds. “It is not our recommendation, it is not our peace plan.”

Rubio acted swiftly to fall in line. “This ceasefire plan was authored by the US,” he subsequently wrote. “It is offered as a strong framework for continuing discussions. The proposal is derived from input from the Moscow. However, it is also based on previous and current input from Ukraine.”