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America's Secretary of the Army, Daniel Driscoll, emerged as an surprising diplomat for the Trump administration latest proposal to end the conflict in Ukraine. Driscoll's close connection with Vice President Vance has placed a close associate of the Eurosceptic vice-president at the center of President Trump's latest effort to settle the war.

Before his recent visit to Kyiv, Driscoll was unrecognized as a mediator or diplomat, and his early attempts to sell the agreement to European policymakers were labeled chaotic.

His strong ties with Vance, who he attended Yale and shares a personal bond, indicate the resurgence of the non-interventionist vice-president in talks to resolve the Ukraine crisis.

Vance's Role in Peace Efforts

It was Vance who intervened during Ukraine's president's disastrous initial visit to the White House in March and demanded he show Trump more courtesy. Now, Ukraine is again resisting demands from the US to accept a quick deal that Ukrainian leaders have described as a capitulation.

Following a chaotic first year in office, international actions in the White House are said to be influenced by a handful of Trump's top aides, including chief of staff Susie Wiles, rightwing adviser Stephen Miller, envoy Steve Witkoff, State Department head Marco Rubio, and of course Vance.

Vance has been a outspoken supporter of the latest proposal, which was crafted by Witkoff and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, together with the Kremlin envoy Kirill Dmitriev.

“Every criticism of the ceasefire plan the White House is working on either misinterprets the proposal or misstates some key situation on the ground,” Vance stated.

Early Attempts and European Reactions

Vance's initial efforts at hammering out a peace deal with Russia, while also attempting to restore ties with Moscow, were fruitless and left his team feeling disappointed with their Russian counterparts. European officials, meanwhile, were irritated by his early remarks, in which he charged them of running from their voters, who Vance said held anti-immigration and right-leaning positions close to those of Trump's own supporters.

However, the new peace deal closely resembled his stances, and he has been one of the most assertive advocates for the agreement in the administration, even as the US has been criticized for accepting a ceasefire plan that largely echoes Vladimir Putin's extreme demands.

In posts this weekend, Vance asserted that a ceasefire agreement would have to establish a ceasefire that honored Ukrainian sovereignty, be acceptable to both sides, and stop the war from resuming.

“A ceasefire will not be made by unsuccessful negotiators or politicians residing in a fantasy land,” he continued. “It could be made by smart people operating in the real world.”

It was Vance who continued on the presentation of the ceasefire proposal in a phone call with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had primarily tasked his team with securing a signature on the ceasefire accord prior to Thanksgiving this week in the United States.

The Secretary of State's Response and Internal Doubts

Vance's stance was a notably more full-throated endorsement of the plan than that given by the top diplomat and security advisor, Marco Rubio, a more traditional hardliner in the government who has gone from a shaky position inside the White House to more firm footing.

Rubio was part of a US delegation that traveled to Geneva this weekend to meet with Ukrainian leaders to help refine the initial 28-point peace plan in order to make it more acceptable to authorities in Kyiv.

But, his first reaction to the agreement was lukewarm:

“Stopping a complicated and deadly war such as the one in Ukraine demands an extensive exchange of substantive and pragmatic proposals,” Rubio wrote recently. “And, securing a lasting ceasefire will require each party to agree to difficult but necessary concessions. This is the reason we are and will continue to create a set of possible ideas for ending this war based on feedback from both sides of this conflict.”

Behind closed doors, he was said to be much more doubtful of the proposal. The GOP lawmaker Mike Rounds stated recently at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had called legislators to clarify that the deal was just a preliminary offer from the Russians and not an plan advocated by the White House.

“The Secretary did make a phone call to us this afternoon and I believe he emphasized to us that we are the receivers of a offer that was presented to one of our officials,” stated Rounds. “The document is not our suggestion, it is not our ceasefire proposal.”

Rubio moved quickly to fall in line. “The peace proposal was written by the US,” he later stated. “The framework is offered as a solid framework for continuing negotiations. The proposal is based on input from the Moscow. However, it is also based on earlier and ongoing input from Ukraine.”