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The US Secretary of the Army, Dan Driscoll, was an surprising envoy for the Trump administration newest proposal to resolve the Russian invasion in Ukraine. His strong relationship with Vice President Vance has placed a key ally of the Eurosceptic VP at the forefront of Donald Trump recent effort to settle the conflict.

Prior to his last week's trip to Kyiv, Driscoll was not known as a negotiator or diplomat, and his early attempts to promote the deal to European policymakers were described as chaotic.

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

Vance's Involvement in Ceasefire Negotiations

This was Vance who intervened during Volodymyr Zelenskyy rocky first visit to the White House in March and insisted he show Trump more respect. Currently, Ukraine is again resisting demands from the US to agree to a swift deal that Ukrainian leaders have called a capitulation.

After a chaotic first year in office, foreign policy actions in the White House are reportedly shaped by a handful of Trump's top aides, such as chief of staff Susie Wiles, conservative adviser Stephen Miller, diplomat Steve Witkoff, State Department head Marco Rubio, and of course Vance.

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

“All criticism of the peace framework the White House is working on either misinterprets the proposal or misrepresents some critical situation on the ground,” Vance wrote.

Early Efforts and EU Reactions

Vance's early attempts at hammering out a ceasefire agreement with Russia, while simultaneously seeking to renew ties with Moscow, were unsuccessful and left his camp feeling disappointed with their Russian counterparts. European officials, in turn, were angered by his initial speeches, in which he accused them of ignoring their constituents, who Vance said held anti-immigration and conservative positions close to those of Trump's own supporters.

But, the recently published ceasefire proposal mirrored his positions, and he has been one of the most assertive advocates for the deal in the government, even as the US has been under fire for accepting a peace framework that mostly resembles Vladimir Putin's maximalist terms.

In posts this past weekend, Vance argued that a peace deal would have to establish a truce that honored Ukrainian independence, be acceptable to both sides, and stop the conflict from resuming.

“Peace won’t be made by unsuccessful negotiators or officials residing in a dream world,” he continued. “It could be made by intelligent people living in the real world.”

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

The Secretary of State's Reaction and Internal Doubts

That was a distinctly more full-throated endorsement of the proposal than that expressed by the top diplomat and national security adviser, Marco Rubio, a more conventional hawk in the administration who has gone from a shaky position inside the White House to more stable standing.

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

However, his first reaction to the agreement was tepid:

“Ending a complicated and deadly conflict such as the one in Ukraine requires an extensive exchange of substantive and pragmatic ideas,” Rubio stated over the weekend. “And, securing a durable ceasefire will require both sides to consent to challenging but essential concessions. This is the reason we are and will continue to create a set of possible ideas for resolving this war based on input from both sides of this conflict.”

In private, he was reportedly much more doubtful of the plan. The Republican senator Mike Rounds said recently at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had called legislators to explain that the deal was just a preliminary proposal from the Russians and not an plan pushed by the White House.

“Rubio did make a 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 representatives,” said Rounds. “The document is not our suggestion, it is not our peace plan.”

Rubio acted swiftly to align himself. “This ceasefire plan was authored by the US,” he subsequently wrote. “It is offered as a strong structure for ongoing discussions. The proposal is based on feedback from the Moscow. But, it is additionally based on previous and ongoing input from Ukraine.”