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America's Secretary of the Army, Dan Driscoll, was an unlikely envoy for the White House's latest proposal to resolve the conflict in Ukraine. His close relationship with Vice President Vance has positioned a close associate of the Euroskeptic VP at the forefront of Donald Trump recent push to settle the war.

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

His close ties with Vance, who he studied and maintains a close friendship, indicate the rising influence of the non-interventionist vice-president in talks to resolve the Ukraine war.

The VP's Role in Ceasefire Efforts

This was Vance who stepped in during Ukraine's president's rocky initial visit to the Trump White House in March and demanded he show Trump more courtesy. Currently, Ukraine is once again resisting demands from the US to accept a swift settlement that Ukrainian leaders have called a surrender.

Following a chaotic first year in office, foreign policy actions in the White House are reportedly shaped by a handful of Trump's top aides, including top aide Susie Wiles, rightwing adviser Stephen Miller, envoy Steve Witkoff, secretary of state Marco Rubio, and finally Vance.

Vance has been a vocal advocate of the latest plan, which was crafted by Witkoff and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, alongside the Russian diplomat Kirill Dmitriev.

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

Initial Efforts and European Responses

Vance's early attempts at hammering out a peace deal with Russia, while simultaneously seeking to restore relations with Moscow, were unsuccessful and left his camp feeling frustrated with their Russian interlocutors. European officials, meanwhile, were angered by his early remarks, in which he accused them of running from their constituents, who Vance said held restrictionist and conservative views similar to those of Trump's own constituency.

However, the new peace deal closely resembled 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 endorsing a ceasefire plan that largely echoes Vladimir Putin's extreme demands.

In posts this weekend, Vance asserted that a ceasefire agreement would have to establish a truce that honored Ukrainian sovereignty, be acceptable to each party, and stop the conflict from restarting.

“A ceasefire will not be made by failed diplomats or politicians living in a dream world,” he added. “An agreement might be made by intelligent people operating in the real world.”

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

Rubio's Reaction and Internal Concerns

That was a notably more full-throated support of the proposal than that given by the secretary of state and security advisor, Marco Rubio, a more traditional hardliner in the administration who has gone from a uncertain stature inside the administration to more stable standing.

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

However, his initial response to the agreement was tepid:

“Ending a complicated and deadly war such as the one in Ukraine requires an thorough discussion of substantive and pragmatic ideas,” Rubio stated recently. “And, securing a durable peace will require each party to consent to difficult but necessary concessions. This is the reason we are and will continue to create a list of potential solutions for resolving this war based on input from both sides of this war.”

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

“The Secretary made a phone call to us this day and I think he emphasized to us that we are the receivers of a proposal that was delivered to one of our representatives,” stated Rounds. “The document is not our suggestion, it is not our peace plan.”

Rubio moved quickly to fall in line. “This ceasefire plan was authored by the US,” he subsequently wrote. “It is presented as a strong framework for ongoing negotiations. It is derived from input from the Russian side. But, it is additionally based on earlier and current input from Ukraine.”