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The US Army Secretary, Daniel Driscoll, emerged as an unlikely diplomat for the Trump administration newest initiative to end the conflict in Ukraine. Driscoll's close connection with Vice President Vance has placed a close associate of the Eurosceptic vice-president at the center of President Trump's recent push to settle the conflict.

Before his recent visit to Kyiv, Driscoll was not known as a negotiator or diplomat, and his early attempts to sell the deal to officials in Europe were described as chaotic.

Driscoll's strong relationship with Vance, who he attended Yale and shares a personal bond, signal the rising influence of the isolationist vice-president in negotiations to end the Ukraine crisis.

Vance's Role in Peace Negotiations

This was Vance who intervened during Ukraine's president's disastrous first visit to the Trump White House in March and insisted he show Trump more respect. Currently, Ukraine is once again resisting demands from the US to accept a swift deal that local officials have called a surrender.

After a chaotic first year in power, international decisions in the White House are reportedly shaped by a handful of Trump's key aides, such as chief of staff Susie Wiles, rightwing advisor Stephen Miller, diplomat Steve Witkoff, State Department head Marco Rubio, and finally Vance.

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

“Every objection of the ceasefire plan the White House is developing either misinterprets the framework or misrepresents some key situation on the ground,” Vance stated.

Initial Efforts and European Responses

Vance's initial attempts at hammering out a ceasefire agreement with Russia, while also seeking to renew relations with Moscow, were fruitless and left his camp feeling frustrated with their Russian interlocutors. Leaders in Europe, meanwhile, were irritated by his early speeches, in which he charged them of ignoring their constituents, who Vance said held restrictionist and right-leaning views close to those of Trump's own supporters.

But, the recently published peace deal closely resembled his positions, and he has been one of the most assertive advocates for the agreement in the administration, even as the US has been criticized for endorsing a peace framework that largely resembles Vladimir Putin's maximalist terms.

In posts this past weekend, Vance asserted that a peace deal would have to produce a truce that respected Ukrainian sovereignty, be acceptable to both sides, and prevent the conflict from restarting.

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

It was Vance who followed up on the introduction of the peace plan in a phone call with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had mainly instructed his staff with obtaining a agreement on the peace deal prior to Thanksgiving this Thursday in the United States.

Rubio's Response and Internal Concerns

Vance's stance was a notably more enthusiastic endorsement of the proposal than that expressed by the top diplomat and national security adviser, Marco Rubio, a more conventional hardliner in the government who has gone from a shaky stature inside the administration to more stable standing.

Rubio was part of a US delegation 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.

But, his initial response to the agreement was lukewarm:

“Ending a complicated and violent war such as the one in Ukraine demands an thorough exchange of serious and pragmatic proposals,” Rubio stated over the weekend. “Furthermore, achieving a durable peace will require both sides to agree to difficult but necessary compromises. This is the reason we are and will persist to develop a set of possible solutions for resolving this war drawing from feedback from each party of this war.”

Behind closed doors, he was said to be much more doubtful of the proposal. The GOP lawmaker Mike Rounds stated recently at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had contacted lawmakers to clarify that the deal was merely a initial offer from the Russians and not an plan advocated by the administration.

“Rubio did make a call to us this afternoon and I think he made it very clear to us that we are the recipients of a proposal that was presented to one of our officials,” said Rounds. “It 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 later wrote. “It is offered as a solid structure for continuing discussions. It is derived from feedback from the Russian side. But, it is also based on earlier and ongoing contributions from Ukraine.”