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America's Secretary of the Army, Dan Driscoll, emerged as an surprising diplomat for the Trump administration newest proposal to end the Russian invasion in Ukraine. Driscoll's close relationship with JD Vance has placed a close associate of the Euroskeptic VP at the forefront of President Trump's latest push to settle the war.

Prior to his recent visit to Kyiv, Driscoll was not known as a mediator or diplomat, and his initial efforts to sell the agreement to officials in Europe were described as chaotic.

His strong relationship with Vance, with whom he attended Yale and shares a personal bond, indicate the resurgence of the isolationist VP in negotiations to resolve the Ukraine crisis.

Vance's Involvement in Ceasefire Efforts

It was Vance who intervened during Ukraine's president's disastrous first visit to the White House in March and demanded he show Trump more respect. Currently, Ukraine is once again pushing back against pressure from the US to agree to a swift deal that Ukrainian leaders have called a capitulation.

Following a chaotic first year in office, foreign policy actions in the White House are said to be shaped by a small group of Trump's top aides, such as top aide Susie Wiles, rightwing advisor Stephen Miller, diplomat Steve Witkoff, State Department head Marco Rubio, and finally Vance.

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

“All criticism of the ceasefire plan the White House is working on either misinterprets the proposal or misstates some key reality on the ground,” the VP wrote.

Early Attempts and EU Reactions

Vance's initial attempts at negotiating a ceasefire agreement with Russia, while simultaneously seeking to renew relations with Moscow, were unsuccessful and left his team feeling frustrated with their Russian interlocutors. European officials, in turn, were irritated by his initial remarks, in which he charged them of ignoring their constituents, who Vance said held anti-immigration and right-leaning views close to those of Trump's own supporters.

But, the new peace deal closely resembled his stances, and he has been one of the most assertive spokespeople for the deal in the administration, even as the US has been criticized for endorsing a ceasefire plan that mostly resembles Vladimir Putin's extreme terms.

In social media updates 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 prevent the conflict from resuming.

“A ceasefire will not be made by unsuccessful negotiators or officials living in a fantasy land,” he added. “It could be made by intelligent people operating in the actual situation.”

It was Vance who followed up on the presentation of the peace plan in a phone call with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had mainly tasked his staff with securing a signature on the ceasefire accord before Thanksgiving this Thursday in the United States.

The Secretary of State's Response and Internal Concerns

That was a distinctly more full-throated endorsement of the plan than that given by the secretary of state and security advisor, Marco Rubio, a more traditional hardliner in the government who has transitioned from a uncertain position inside the White House to more firm footing.

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

However, his initial reaction to the deal was tepid:

“Stopping a complex and violent conflict such as the one in Ukraine demands an extensive discussion of substantive and pragmatic proposals,” Rubio stated recently. “And, achieving a lasting peace will require each party to consent to challenging but essential concessions. This is the reason we are and will continue to develop a set of possible solutions for resolving this conflict based on feedback from both sides of this conflict.”

In private, he was reportedly much more doubtful of the proposal. 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 merely a initial proposal from the Russians and not an plan advocated by the administration.

“The Secretary made 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 presented to one of our representatives,” said Rounds. “It is not our suggestion, it is not our ceasefire proposal.”

Rubio acted swiftly to fall in line. “The peace proposal was written by the US,” he subsequently stated. “It is presented as a strong structure for ongoing negotiations. The proposal is based on input from the Russian side. But, it is also based on previous and ongoing contributions from Ukraine.”