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The US Army Secretary, Daniel Driscoll, was an unlikely envoy for the White House's latest proposal to resolve the conflict in Ukraine. His strong connection with JD Vance has placed a key ally of the Eurosceptic VP at the center of Donald Trump recent push to settle the conflict.

Prior to his recent visit to Kyiv, Driscoll was unrecognized as a negotiator or diplomat, and his early efforts to promote the agreement to officials in Europe were labeled chaotic.

Driscoll's close ties with Vance, with whom he attended Yale and shares a close friendship, indicate the resurgence of the isolationist vice-president in negotiations to end the Ukraine war.

The VP's Role in Peace Negotiations

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 demands from the US to accept a swift deal that local officials have described as a surrender.

Following a chaotic first year in power, international actions in the White House are said to be influenced by a handful of Trump's key aides, such as chief of staff Susie Wiles, rightwing adviser Stephen Miller, envoy Steve Witkoff, State Department head Marco Rubio, and finally Vance.

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

“Every objection of the peace framework the administration is working on either misunderstands the framework or misstates some key reality on the ground,” Vance wrote.

Initial Efforts and European Reactions

Vance's early efforts at negotiating a peace deal with Russia, while simultaneously seeking to restore ties with Moscow, were unsuccessful and left his camp feeling frustrated with their Russian interlocutors. European officials, meanwhile, were irritated by his initial remarks, in which he charged them of running from their constituents, who Vance claimed held restrictionist and conservative views similar to those of Trump's own supporters.

But, the recently published ceasefire proposal 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 criticized for endorsing a peace framework that mostly echoes Vladimir Putin's extreme terms.

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

“A ceasefire won’t be made by failed diplomats or officials living in a fantasy land,” he continued. “An agreement could be made by intelligent people living in the actual situation.”

It was Vance who continued on the presentation 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 Thursday in the United States.

Rubio's Reaction and Private Concerns

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

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

But, his initial response to the deal was tepid:

“Ending a complicated and deadly conflict such as the one in Ukraine demands an thorough exchange of substantive and realistic ideas,” Rubio wrote recently. “Furthermore, securing a lasting ceasefire will require both sides to agree to difficult but essential concessions. This is the reason we are and will persist to create a list of potential solutions for ending this war based on feedback from both sides of this conflict.”

Behind closed doors, he was said to be much more doubtful of the proposal. The Republican senator Mike Rounds stated last week at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had called lawmakers to clarify that the deal was merely a preliminary offer from the Russians and not an plan advocated by the White House.

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

Rubio acted swiftly to align himself. “This ceasefire plan was authored by the US,” he later wrote. “It is presented as a solid structure for ongoing discussions. It is based on feedback from the Russian side. But, it is additionally based on earlier and ongoing input from Ukraine.”