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America's Secretary of the Army, Daniel Driscoll, was an unlikely diplomat for the Trump administration latest proposal to end the conflict in Ukraine. Driscoll's close connection with JD Vance has positioned a key ally of the Euroskeptic VP at the forefront of President Trump's latest push to settle the conflict.

Before his recent trip to Kyiv, Driscoll was unrecognized as a negotiator or statesman, and his initial attempts to sell the deal to officials in Europe were described as turbulent.

His close relationship with Vance, who he attended Yale and shares a close friendship, indicate the resurgence of the isolationist VP in talks to end the Ukraine crisis.

The VP's Role in Ceasefire Negotiations

It was Vance who stepped in during Ukraine's president's disastrous initial visit to the Trump White House in March and insisted he show Trump more courtesy. Now, Ukraine is once again pushing back against pressure from the US to agree to a swift deal that local officials have described as a capitulation.

Following a tumultuous first year in power, foreign policy decisions in the White House are said to be influenced by a small group of Trump's top advisers, including top aide Susie Wiles, conservative advisor Stephen Miller, diplomat Steve Witkoff, State Department head Marco Rubio, and of course Vance.

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

“All objection of the ceasefire plan the administration is developing either misinterprets the proposal or misstates some critical situation on the ground,” Vance wrote.

Early Efforts and European Responses

Vance's initial efforts at hammering out a peace deal with Russia, while also seeking to renew ties with Moscow, were unsuccessful and left his camp feeling disappointed with their Russian interlocutors. European officials, meanwhile, were irritated by his early speeches, in which he accused them of running from their constituents, who Vance said held anti-immigration and right-leaning views close to those of Trump's own constituency.

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

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

“Peace will not be made by failed negotiators or officials residing in a fantasy land,” he added. “It might be made by intelligent people living in the real world.”

Additionally, it was Vance who followed up on the presentation of the ceasefire proposal in a conversation with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had primarily instructed his team with obtaining a signature on the ceasefire accord prior to Thanksgiving this week in the United States.

The Secretary of State's Reaction and Private Doubts

Vance's stance was a notably more full-throated endorsement of the plan than that given by the secretary of state and security advisor, Marco Rubio, a more conventional hardliner in the administration who has gone from a shaky stature inside the White House to more firm standing.

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

However, his initial reaction to the agreement was lukewarm:

“Stopping a complex and deadly war such as the one in Ukraine requires an extensive discussion of substantive and realistic proposals,” Rubio stated over the weekend. “And, achieving a lasting ceasefire will necessitate each party to agree to difficult but necessary compromises. That is why we are and will continue to create a list of possible ideas for resolving this conflict drawing from input from each party of this war.”

Behind closed doors, he was said to be much more skeptical of the proposal. The Republican senator Mike Rounds said recently at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had contacted lawmakers to explain that the deal was just a preliminary offer from the Russians and not an initiative pushed by the White House.

“Rubio did make a call to us this afternoon and I think he emphasized to us that we are the recipients 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 moved quickly to fall in line. “This ceasefire plan was written by the US,” he later wrote. “The framework is presented as a solid framework for continuing discussions. The proposal is derived from feedback from the Moscow. But, it is additionally based on previous and ongoing input from Ukraine.”