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America's Secretary of the Army, Dan Driscoll, emerged as an unlikely diplomat for the Trump administration latest initiative to end the Russian invasion in Ukraine. His strong relationship with JD Vance has placed a key ally of the Eurosceptic vice-president at the forefront of Donald Trump latest effort to settle the conflict.

Before his last week's trip to Kyiv, Driscoll was unrecognized as a mediator or diplomat, and his early efforts to promote the agreement to European policymakers were labeled chaotic.

Driscoll's close relationship with Vance, with whom he attended Yale and maintains a close friendship, signal the rising influence of the isolationist vice-president in negotiations to resolve the Ukraine crisis.

The VP's Role in Ceasefire Efforts

This was Vance who intervened during Volodymyr Zelenskyy disastrous initial trip to the White House in March and demanded he show Trump more respect. Currently, Ukraine is again resisting pressure from the US to agree to a quick deal that local officials have described as a surrender.

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

Vance has been a outspoken supporter of the recent proposal, which was developed by Witkoff and Trump's relative Jared Kushner, together with the Kremlin envoy Kirill Dmitriev.

“Every objection of the ceasefire plan the administration is working on either misunderstands the proposal or misstates some critical situation on the ground,” Vance wrote.

Early Attempts and European Responses

Vance's early efforts at negotiating a peace deal with Russia, while also seeking to restore relations with Moscow, were fruitless and left his camp feeling disappointed with their Russian interlocutors. Leaders in Europe, meanwhile, were irritated by his early speeches, in which he accused them of ignoring their constituents, who Vance said held restrictionist and right-leaning views similar to those of Trump's own supporters.

But, the new ceasefire proposal 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 ceasefire plan that largely echoes Vladimir Putin's maximalist demands.

In posts this weekend, Vance argued that a ceasefire agreement would have to establish a truce that respected Ukrainian independence, be agreeable to both sides, and prevent the conflict from restarting.

“Peace won’t be made by unsuccessful diplomats or politicians living in a dream world,” he added. “An agreement could be made by intelligent people operating in the actual situation.”

Additionally, it was Vance who continued on the presentation of the peace plan in a phone call with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had primarily instructed his staff with obtaining a agreement on the ceasefire accord before Thanksgiving this week in the United States.

Rubio's Response and Private Concerns

That was a distinctly more enthusiastic support of the proposal than that expressed by the top diplomat and national security adviser, Marco Rubio, a more conventional hawk in the government who has gone from a shaky position inside the administration to more firm footing.

Rubio was a member of a US team that traveled to Geneva this 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.

However, his initial reaction to the deal was lukewarm:

“Stopping a complicated and deadly conflict such as the one in Ukraine requires an extensive exchange of substantive and pragmatic ideas,” Rubio stated over the weekend. “And, achieving a durable peace will require both sides to consent to difficult but essential concessions. This is the reason we are and will continue to develop a set of possible solutions for resolving this war drawing from input from each party of this war.”

In private, he was reportedly much more doubtful of the plan. The GOP lawmaker Mike Rounds stated recently at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had called lawmakers to explain that the agreement was just a preliminary offer from the Russians and not an initiative advocated by the administration.

“Rubio made a phone call to us this afternoon and I believe he made it very clear to us that we are the receivers of a proposal that was delivered to one of our representatives,” said Rounds. “The document is not our suggestion, it is not our peace plan.”

Rubio moved quickly to fall in line. “This ceasefire plan was written by the US,” he subsequently stated. “The framework is presented as a solid framework for continuing discussions. The proposal is derived from feedback from the Moscow. However, it is also informed by previous and current input from Ukraine.”