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America's Army Secretary, Daniel Driscoll, emerged as an surprising diplomat for the White House's newest proposal to end the Russian invasion in Ukraine. His close relationship with JD Vance has positioned a close associate of the Eurosceptic vice-president at the forefront of Donald Trump latest push to conclude the conflict.

Prior to his last week's visit to Kyiv, Driscoll was unrecognized as a negotiator or statesman, and his early efforts to promote the agreement to officials in Europe were labeled chaotic.

His close relationship with Vance, with whom he studied and shares a personal bond, indicate the resurgence of the non-interventionist VP in negotiations to resolve the Ukraine war.

Vance's Role in Peace Efforts

This was Vance who stepped in during Volodymyr Zelenskyy rocky initial visit to the Trump White House in March and demanded he show Trump more courtesy. Currently, Ukraine is once again pushing back against pressure from the US to agree to a swift deal that Ukrainian leaders have described as a capitulation.

After a chaotic initial year in office, international actions in the White House are said to be shaped by a handful of Trump's key advisers, including top aide Susie Wiles, conservative advisor Stephen Miller, diplomat Steve Witkoff, State Department head Marco Rubio, and finally Vance.

Vance has been a vocal advocate of the latest plan, which was developed by Witkoff and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, together with the Kremlin envoy Kirill Dmitriev.

“Every objection of the peace framework the White House is developing either misinterprets the proposal or misrepresents some critical situation on the ground,” Vance wrote.

Early Efforts and European Reactions

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 interlocutors. European officials, meanwhile, were irritated by his initial speeches, in which he charged them of ignoring their voters, who Vance claimed held restrictionist and right-leaning positions close to those of Trump's own constituency.

But, the new peace deal closely resembled his positions, and he has been one of the most forceful advocates for the deal in the government, even as the US has been criticized for accepting a ceasefire plan that mostly echoes Vladimir Putin's maximalist terms.

In social media updates this past weekend, Vance argued that a ceasefire agreement would have to establish a ceasefire that honored Ukrainian independence, be agreeable to each party, and prevent the conflict from resuming.

“Peace won’t be made by unsuccessful negotiators or officials living in a fantasy land,” he continued. “An agreement might be made by smart people living in the actual situation.”

Additionally, it was Vance who continued on the introduction of the ceasefire proposal in a phone call with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had mainly instructed his team with obtaining a signature on the ceasefire accord prior to Thanksgiving this Thursday in the United States.

Rubio's Response and Internal Concerns

That was a distinctly more full-throated endorsement of the proposal than that given by the secretary of state and security advisor, Marco Rubio, a more conventional hawk in the administration who has gone from a shaky stature inside the administration to more firm standing.

Rubio was part of a US delegation that went to Geneva this past weekend to meet with Ukrainian officials to help moderate the original 28-point peace plan in order to make it more acceptable to leaders in Kyiv.

However, his first response to the agreement was tepid:

“Stopping a complex and violent conflict such as the one in Ukraine demands an extensive exchange of substantive and realistic ideas,” Rubio wrote over the weekend. “Furthermore, securing a durable peace will necessitate each party to agree to difficult but necessary concessions. This is the reason we are and will continue to develop a list of possible solutions for ending this conflict drawing from feedback from each party of this war.”

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

“The Secretary did make a phone call to us this afternoon and I think he made it very clear to us that we are the receivers of a offer that was delivered to one of our representatives,” said Rounds. “It is not our suggestion, it is not our ceasefire proposal.”

Rubio moved quickly to align himself. “The peace proposal was authored by the US,” he later wrote. “The framework is presented as a solid structure for continuing discussions. It is derived from feedback from the Moscow. But, it is also based on earlier and current contributions from Ukraine.”