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America's Secretary of the Army, Dan Driscoll, was an unlikely diplomat for the Trump administration newest proposal to resolve the Russian invasion in Ukraine. His close relationship with JD Vance has positioned a key ally of the Euroskeptic VP at the center of Donald Trump latest effort to conclude the conflict.

Before his recent trip to Kyiv, Driscoll was unrecognized as a negotiator or diplomat, and his initial efforts to sell the deal to European policymakers were described as chaotic.

His strong ties with Vance, with whom he studied and shares a close friendship, indicate the rising influence of the isolationist vice-president in talks to end the Ukraine crisis.

Vance's Role in Ceasefire Negotiations

It was Vance who intervened during Volodymyr Zelenskyy rocky first trip to the Trump White House in March and insisted he show Trump more courtesy. Currently, Ukraine is once again resisting demands from the US to accept a quick deal that local officials have called a surrender.

After a tumultuous initial year in power, international actions in the White House are reportedly shaped by a handful of Trump's top advisers, including top aide Susie Wiles, rightwing adviser Stephen Miller, diplomat Steve Witkoff, State Department head Marco Rubio, and finally Vance.

Vance has been a vocal advocate of the latest proposal, which was crafted by Witkoff and Trump's relative Jared Kushner, alongside the Kremlin envoy Kirill Dmitriev.

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

Initial Attempts and EU Responses

Vance's early attempts at negotiating a peace deal with Russia, while also seeking to renew relations with Moscow, were unsuccessful and left his camp feeling frustrated with their Russian interlocutors. European officials, in turn, were irritated by his early speeches, in which he accused them of ignoring their constituents, who Vance said held anti-immigration and conservative positions close to those of Trump's own constituency.

But, the recently published ceasefire proposal mirrored his stances, and he has been one of the most forceful spokespeople for the agreement in the government, even as the US has been criticized for endorsing a ceasefire plan that mostly resembles Vladimir Putin's maximalist demands.

In social media updates this weekend, Vance argued that a ceasefire agreement would have to produce a ceasefire that honored Ukrainian independence, be agreeable to each party, and prevent the war from restarting.

“A ceasefire will not be made by unsuccessful negotiators or officials residing in a dream world,” he added. “An agreement could be made by smart people operating in the real world.”

Additionally, it was Vance who continued on the introduction of the ceasefire proposal in a phone call 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 Private Doubts

Vance's stance was a notably more enthusiastic endorsement of the plan than that expressed by the top diplomat and national security adviser, Marco Rubio, a more conventional hawk 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 went to Geneva this past weekend to confer with Ukrainian officials to help moderate the initial 28-point peace plan in order to make it more palatable to leaders in Kyiv.

However, his first reaction to the agreement was lukewarm:

“Stopping a complicated and deadly war such as the one in Ukraine requires an extensive exchange of substantive and pragmatic proposals,” Rubio wrote over the weekend. “And, achieving a durable ceasefire will require each party to agree to difficult but essential compromises. This is the reason we are and will persist to create a set of possible solutions for resolving this conflict based on input from both sides of this war.”

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

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

Rubio moved quickly to align himself. “This ceasefire plan was authored by the US,” he later stated. “It is offered as a solid structure for ongoing discussions. The proposal is based on input from the Russian side. But, it is additionally based on earlier and current contributions from Ukraine.”