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The US Army Secretary, Daniel Driscoll, was an unlikely envoy for the White House's newest proposal to resolve the conflict in Ukraine. Driscoll's strong connection with Vice President Vance has positioned a close associate of the Eurosceptic vice-president at the forefront of Donald Trump latest effort to settle the conflict.

Prior to his last week's trip to Kyiv, Driscoll was unrecognized as a mediator or diplomat, and his initial efforts to promote the agreement to officials in Europe were described as turbulent.

Driscoll's close relationship with Vance, with whom he studied and shares a close friendship, indicate the rising influence of the isolationist vice-president in talks to end the Ukraine war.

The VP's Role in Ceasefire Efforts

This was Vance who intervened during Volodymyr Zelenskyy rocky initial visit to the White House in March and insisted he show Trump more respect. Now, Ukraine is again pushing back against demands from the US to agree to a quick deal that local officials have called a surrender.

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

Vance has been a outspoken advocate of the recent proposal, which was crafted by Witkoff and Trump's relative Jared Kushner, alongside the Russian diplomat Kirill Dmitriev.

“Every objection of the peace framework the White House is working on either misunderstands the framework or misstates some key reality on the ground,” Vance stated.

Initial Efforts and European Reactions

Vance's initial efforts at negotiating a ceasefire agreement with Russia, while simultaneously seeking to renew relations with Moscow, were fruitless and left his camp feeling frustrated with their Russian counterparts. Leaders in Europe, in turn, were irritated by his initial speeches, in which he accused them of running from their constituents, who Vance claimed held anti-immigration and conservative views close to those of Trump's own constituency.

However, the new ceasefire proposal closely resembled his stances, and he has been one of the most assertive spokespeople for the agreement in the administration, even as the US has been criticized for endorsing a peace framework that largely echoes Vladimir Putin's maximalist terms.

In social media updates this past weekend, Vance argued that a peace deal would have to establish a ceasefire that respected Ukrainian sovereignty, be acceptable to each party, and stop the conflict from restarting.

“Peace won’t be made by failed negotiators or politicians residing in a fantasy land,” he continued. “It might be made by smart people operating in the real world.”

It was Vance who followed up on the introduction of the peace plan in a conversation with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had mainly instructed his staff with securing a signature on the peace deal before 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 support of the plan than that expressed by the top diplomat and national security adviser, Marco Rubio, a more traditional hardliner in the government who has transitioned from a uncertain position inside the administration to more stable footing.

Rubio was a member of a US delegation that traveled to Geneva this weekend to meet with Ukrainian leaders to help refine the original 28-point ceasefire proposal in order to make it more palatable to leaders in Kyiv.

However, his initial reaction to the agreement was lukewarm:

“Ending a complicated and deadly conflict such as the one in Ukraine requires an extensive discussion of serious and realistic ideas,” Rubio stated recently. “And, securing a lasting ceasefire will require each party to agree to difficult but essential compromises. This is the reason we are and will continue to develop a set of possible solutions for ending this conflict drawing from feedback from both sides of this war.”

Behind closed doors, he was said to be much more doubtful of the plan. The GOP lawmaker Mike Rounds said recently at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had contacted lawmakers to explain that the deal was merely a preliminary proposal from the Russians and not an initiative pushed by the administration.

“The Secretary made a phone call to us this day and I think he emphasized to us that we are the receivers of a proposal 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 fall in line. “This ceasefire plan was authored by the US,” he subsequently wrote. “The framework is presented as a strong framework for ongoing negotiations. The proposal is derived from feedback from the Moscow. However, it is additionally based on previous and ongoing contributions from Ukraine.”