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The US Army Secretary, Dan Driscoll, was an surprising envoy for the White House's latest proposal to resolve the conflict in Ukraine. Driscoll's close relationship with JD Vance has placed a close associate of the Eurosceptic VP at the center of President Trump's recent effort to settle the conflict.

Before his last week's trip to Kyiv, Driscoll was not known as a negotiator or statesman, and his early attempts to promote the deal to officials in Europe were described as chaotic.

His close relationship with Vance, who he studied and shares a personal bond, signal the rising influence of the isolationist vice-president in negotiations to end the Ukraine war.

Vance's Role in Ceasefire Efforts

This was Vance who intervened during Volodymyr Zelenskyy disastrous initial visit to the White House in March and insisted he show Trump more respect. Now, Ukraine is again resisting demands from the US to accept a swift deal that local officials have called a capitulation.

After a tumultuous first year in office, international decisions in the White House are said to be shaped by a small group of Trump's top advisers, such as top aide Susie Wiles, conservative adviser Stephen Miller, diplomat Steve Witkoff, secretary of state Marco Rubio, and finally Vance.

Vance has been a vocal supporter of the latest proposal, which was developed by Witkoff and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, alongside the Kremlin envoy Kirill Dmitriev.

“Every objection of the ceasefire plan the administration is developing either misinterprets the proposal or misrepresents some key reality on the ground,” Vance stated.

Initial Efforts and European Responses

Vance's initial efforts at negotiating a peace deal with Russia, while simultaneously seeking to restore relations with Moscow, were fruitless 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 voters, who Vance claimed held restrictionist and conservative views close to those of Trump's own supporters.

But, the recently published peace deal closely resembled his stances, and he has been one of the most forceful spokespeople for the deal in the government, even as the US has been criticized for accepting 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 honored Ukrainian sovereignty, be acceptable to each party, and stop the war from resuming.

“Peace will not be made by failed diplomats or officials residing in a fantasy land,” he added. “An agreement might be made by intelligent people operating in the real world.”

It was Vance who followed up on the presentation of the peace plan in a conversation with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had mainly tasked his staff with securing a signature on the ceasefire accord prior to Thanksgiving this week in the United States.

Rubio's Reaction and Private Concerns

That 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 traditional hawk in the government who has gone from a shaky position inside the administration to more stable standing.

Rubio was a member of a US team that went to Geneva this weekend to meet with Ukrainian leaders to help refine the initial 28-point peace plan in order to make it more acceptable to authorities in Kyiv.

But, his initial reaction to the deal was lukewarm:

“Stopping a complicated and deadly conflict such as the one in Ukraine requires an thorough exchange of serious and pragmatic ideas,” Rubio stated recently. “And, securing a lasting peace will require both sides to agree to difficult but necessary compromises. That is why we are and will continue to develop a list of potential solutions for resolving this conflict based on input from both sides of this conflict.”

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

“The Secretary made a call to us this day and I believe he made it very clear to us that we are the recipients of a offer that was delivered to one of our representatives,” stated Rounds. “It is not our suggestion, it is not our peace plan.”

Rubio acted swiftly to fall in line. “The peace proposal was written by the US,” he later wrote. “The framework is presented as a solid structure for ongoing negotiations. The proposal is derived from feedback from the Moscow. But, it is also based on previous and current input from Ukraine.”