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The US Army Secretary, Daniel Driscoll, emerged as an unlikely envoy for the Trump administration latest initiative to resolve the conflict in Ukraine. His close connection with JD Vance has placed a close associate of the Euroskeptic vice-president at the forefront of President Trump's recent push to conclude the war.

Before his recent visit to Kyiv, Driscoll was unrecognized as a mediator or diplomat, and his initial attempts to promote the agreement to officials in Europe were described as turbulent.

Driscoll's strong relationship with Vance, who he studied and shares a personal bond, signal the rising influence of the non-interventionist vice-president in negotiations to end the Ukraine war.

Vance's Involvement in Peace Efforts

This was Vance who stepped in during Volodymyr Zelenskyy rocky initial visit to the Trump White House in March and insisted he show Trump more courtesy. Now, Ukraine is again resisting pressure from the US to accept a quick deal that local officials have described as a capitulation.

Following a tumultuous first year in office, international decisions in the White House are reportedly influenced by a small group of Trump's top advisers, including top aide Susie Wiles, rightwing adviser Stephen Miller, diplomat Steve Witkoff, secretary of state Marco Rubio, and of course Vance.

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

“All objection of the peace framework the White House is working on either misinterprets the proposal or misstates some critical situation on the ground,” the VP wrote.

Early Attempts and EU Responses

Vance's early efforts at negotiating a ceasefire agreement with Russia, while also seeking to renew ties with Moscow, were unsuccessful and left his camp feeling frustrated with their Russian counterparts. European officials, in turn, were angered by his early remarks, in which he accused them of running from their constituents, who Vance claimed held anti-immigration and conservative positions close to those of Trump's own constituency.

But, the new peace deal closely resembled his positions, 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 largely echoes Vladimir Putin's extreme terms.

In posts this past weekend, Vance argued that a peace deal would have to produce a ceasefire that honored Ukrainian independence, be acceptable to both sides, and stop the conflict from restarting.

“Peace won’t be made by unsuccessful diplomats or officials residing in a dream world,” he added. “It might be made by intelligent 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 primarily tasked his team 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 enthusiastic support of the plan than that given by the secretary of state and national security adviser, Marco Rubio, a more traditional hardliner in the government who has transitioned from a shaky stature inside the administration to more firm footing.

Rubio was part of a US team that traveled to Geneva this past weekend to confer with Ukrainian leaders to help moderate the original 28-point ceasefire proposal in order to make it more acceptable to leaders in Kyiv.

But, his initial response to the agreement was lukewarm:

“Stopping a complicated and violent conflict such as the one in Ukraine requires an thorough discussion of serious and realistic ideas,” Rubio wrote recently. “Furthermore, securing a durable peace will require both sides to consent to difficult but necessary compromises. This is the reason we are and will persist to develop a set of potential ideas for ending this conflict based on input from each party of this war.”

Behind closed doors, he was reportedly much more skeptical of the proposal. The GOP lawmaker Mike Rounds said recently at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had called lawmakers to explain that the agreement was merely a preliminary offer from the Russians and not an plan advocated by the White House.

“Rubio did make a call to us this afternoon and I believe he made it very clear to us that we are the receivers of a offer that was presented to one of our representatives,” stated Rounds. “The document is not our recommendation, it is not our ceasefire proposal.”

Rubio acted swiftly to fall in line. “This ceasefire plan was authored by the US,” he subsequently stated. “It is presented as a strong structure for ongoing negotiations. The proposal is derived from input from the Moscow. However, it is additionally informed by previous and ongoing contributions from Ukraine.”