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The US Secretary of the Army, Dan Driscoll, was an unlikely envoy for the Trump administration newest initiative to resolve the conflict in Ukraine. His close connection with JD Vance has positioned a key ally of the Eurosceptic vice-president at the forefront of Donald Trump recent push to conclude the conflict.

Before his last week's visit to Kyiv, Driscoll was not known as a negotiator or diplomat, and his early efforts to sell the agreement to European policymakers were labeled turbulent.

Driscoll's close ties with Vance, who he studied and shares a close friendship, signal the resurgence of the isolationist vice-president in talks to end the Ukraine war.

The VP's Role 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. Currently, Ukraine is again pushing back against demands from the US to agree to a swift settlement that local officials have called a capitulation.

After a chaotic first year in office, foreign policy decisions in the White House are reportedly shaped by a handful of Trump's key advisers, such as chief of staff Susie Wiles, rightwing advisor Stephen Miller, diplomat Steve Witkoff, secretary of state Marco Rubio, and finally Vance.

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

“All objection of the peace framework the White House is developing either misunderstands the framework or misrepresents some critical reality on the ground,” Vance wrote.

Early Attempts and EU Responses

Vance's early efforts at hammering out a peace deal with Russia, while simultaneously attempting to renew ties with Moscow, were unsuccessful and left his team feeling frustrated with their Russian counterparts. Leaders in Europe, meanwhile, were irritated by his initial speeches, in which he accused them of running from their constituents, who Vance said held anti-immigration and conservative views close to those of Trump's own constituency.

However, the recently published peace deal mirrored his stances, 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 echoes Vladimir Putin's extreme terms.

In posts this past weekend, Vance argued that a peace deal would have to produce a truce that respected Ukrainian sovereignty, be agreeable to both sides, and stop the war from resuming.

“A ceasefire won’t be made by failed diplomats or politicians living in a fantasy land,” he continued. “It might be made by smart people living in the actual situation.”

It was Vance who continued on the presentation of the ceasefire proposal in a conversation with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had mainly tasked his team with obtaining a agreement on the peace deal before Thanksgiving this Thursday in the United States.

The Secretary of State's Reaction and Private Concerns

That was a distinctly more full-throated endorsement of the plan than that expressed by the top diplomat and security advisor, Marco Rubio, a more conventional hawk in the government 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 refine the original 28-point ceasefire proposal in order to make it more palatable to authorities in Kyiv.

But, his initial reaction to the agreement was lukewarm:

“Stopping a complicated and violent conflict such as the one in Ukraine demands an extensive exchange of serious and pragmatic proposals,” Rubio wrote recently. “Furthermore, securing a lasting ceasefire will require each party to consent to challenging but essential concessions. This is the reason we are and will continue to create a list of possible solutions for resolving this war drawing from input from both sides of this war.”

Behind closed doors, he was said to be much more doubtful of the plan. The Republican senator Mike Rounds stated recently at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had contacted lawmakers to clarify that the agreement was merely a initial offer from the Russians and not an initiative pushed by the White House.

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

Rubio moved quickly to fall in line. “The peace proposal was written by the US,” he later stated. “The framework is offered as a strong framework for ongoing discussions. It is derived from feedback from the Moscow. But, it is also informed by previous and current input from Ukraine.”