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America's Secretary of the Army, Daniel Driscoll, was an unlikely envoy for the White House's newest proposal to resolve the conflict in Ukraine. His close connection with JD Vance has placed a key ally of the Euroskeptic vice-president at the center of Donald Trump recent push to conclude the war.

Before his recent visit to Kyiv, Driscoll was not known as a mediator or diplomat, and his initial efforts to promote the agreement to European policymakers were labeled chaotic.

His strong ties with Vance, who he attended Yale and shares a close friendship, indicate the resurgence of the isolationist VP in talks to resolve the Ukraine war.

The VP's Role in Peace Efforts

It was Vance who stepped in during Volodymyr Zelenskyy rocky initial trip to the Trump White House in March and insisted he show Trump more courtesy. Now, Ukraine is once again pushing back against demands from the US to accept a swift deal that local officials have described as a capitulation.

After a tumultuous first year in office, international decisions in the White House are reportedly shaped by a small group of Trump's top advisers, including top aide Susie Wiles, rightwing advisor Stephen Miller, diplomat Steve Witkoff, State Department head Marco Rubio, and of course Vance.

Vance has been a vocal supporter of the recent proposal, which was crafted by Witkoff and Trump's relative Jared Kushner, together with the Kremlin envoy Kirill Dmitriev.

“All criticism of the peace framework the administration is working on either misunderstands the proposal or misstates some critical reality on the ground,” Vance wrote.

Initial Attempts and European Reactions

Vance's initial efforts at hammering out a peace deal with Russia, while also seeking to renew relations with Moscow, were unsuccessful and left his camp feeling frustrated with their Russian counterparts. Leaders in Europe, meanwhile, were irritated by his initial speeches, in which he charged them of ignoring their voters, who Vance said held restrictionist and conservative views close to those of Trump's own supporters.

But, the new ceasefire proposal mirrored his stances, and he has been one of the most assertive spokespeople for the agreement in the government, even as the US has been under fire for accepting a peace framework that mostly echoes Vladimir Putin's maximalist demands.

In social media updates this weekend, Vance argued that a ceasefire agreement would have to produce a ceasefire that honored Ukrainian sovereignty, be agreeable to each party, and stop the conflict from restarting.

“A ceasefire will not be made by unsuccessful negotiators or politicians residing in a dream world,” he continued. “It might be made by intelligent people operating in the real world.”

Additionally, it was Vance who continued on the introduction of the peace plan in a conversation with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had primarily tasked his team with securing a signature on the ceasefire accord before Thanksgiving this week in the United States.

Rubio's Response and Private Concerns

Vance's stance was a distinctly more enthusiastic endorsement of the proposal than that given by the secretary of state and national security adviser, Marco Rubio, a more conventional hawk in the government who has gone from a uncertain stature inside the administration to more firm footing.

Rubio was a member of a US delegation that traveled to Geneva this past weekend to confer with Ukrainian officials to help refine the original 28-point peace plan in order to make it more acceptable 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 demands an extensive discussion of substantive and realistic proposals,” Rubio stated over the weekend. “And, achieving a lasting ceasefire will necessitate both sides to agree to difficult but essential compromises. This is the reason we are and will continue to develop a set of potential ideas for resolving this conflict drawing from input from both sides of this war.”

In private, he was said to be much more doubtful of the plan. The Republican senator Mike Rounds said last week at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had contacted lawmakers to clarify that the deal was just a preliminary offer from the Russians and not an plan pushed by the administration.

“Rubio did make a phone call to us this day and I think he made it very clear to us that we are the receivers of a proposal that was delivered to one of our officials,” stated Rounds. “It is not our suggestion, it is not our ceasefire proposal.”

Rubio moved quickly to fall in line. “The peace proposal was authored by the US,” he later wrote. “It is offered as a solid framework for continuing discussions. The proposal is derived from input from the Russian side. However, it is also informed by earlier and ongoing input from Ukraine.”