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The US Secretary of the Army, Dan Driscoll, emerged as an unlikely diplomat for the White House's newest initiative to end the conflict in Ukraine. Driscoll's close connection with JD Vance has positioned a close associate of the Eurosceptic VP at the forefront of Donald Trump recent effort to conclude the war.

Prior to his last week's visit to Kyiv, Driscoll was not known as a mediator or diplomat, and his initial attempts to sell the deal to officials in Europe were described as chaotic.

His strong ties with Vance, who he attended Yale and shares a personal bond, signal the rising influence of the isolationist VP in negotiations to end the Ukraine crisis.

The VP's Role in Ceasefire Efforts

This was Vance who stepped in during Ukraine's president's rocky initial trip to the Trump White House in March and insisted he show Trump more courtesy. Now, Ukraine is once again resisting pressure from the US to accept a swift deal that local officials have called a capitulation.

After a tumultuous initial year in office, international actions in the White House are reportedly influenced by a small group of Trump's top advisers, such as chief of staff Susie Wiles, conservative advisor Stephen Miller, envoy Steve Witkoff, secretary of state Marco Rubio, and finally Vance.

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

“Every objection of the ceasefire plan the White House is working on either misinterprets the framework or misrepresents some critical reality on the ground,” Vance wrote.

Initial Attempts and European Reactions

Vance's early attempts at hammering out a peace deal with Russia, while simultaneously seeking to restore relations with Moscow, were fruitless and left his team feeling disappointed with their Russian counterparts. European officials, meanwhile, were angered by his early speeches, in which he charged them of ignoring their constituents, who Vance claimed held anti-immigration and conservative views close to those of Trump's own supporters.

But, the recently published peace deal mirrored his positions, and he has been one of the most assertive advocates for the agreement in the government, even as the US has been criticized for accepting a peace framework that mostly echoes Vladimir Putin's maximalist demands.

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

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

Additionally, it was Vance who continued on the presentation of the ceasefire proposal 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 Reaction and Private Doubts

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 administration who has gone from a shaky position inside the administration to more firm footing.

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

However, his initial response to the agreement was tepid:

“Ending a complex and deadly conflict such as the one in Ukraine demands an thorough exchange of serious and realistic ideas,” Rubio stated over the weekend. “And, achieving a lasting peace will require each party to agree to difficult but essential concessions. That is why we are and will persist to develop a list of possible ideas for resolving this conflict based on input from both sides of this war.”

In private, he was said to be much more skeptical of the plan. The Republican senator Mike Rounds said last week at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had called legislators to clarify that the agreement was merely a preliminary proposal from the Russians and not an plan advocated by the White House.

“The Secretary made a phone call to us this day and I think he made it very clear to us that we are the recipients of a offer that was presented to one of our representatives,” stated Rounds. “It is not our recommendation, it is not our peace plan.”

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