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America's Army Secretary, Dan Driscoll, was an unlikely diplomat for the White House's newest initiative to resolve the conflict in Ukraine. Driscoll's strong connection with JD Vance has positioned a close associate of the Euroskeptic vice-president at the center of President Trump's recent effort to settle the conflict.

Before his recent trip to Kyiv, Driscoll was not known as a negotiator or diplomat, and his initial attempts to sell the deal to European policymakers were labeled chaotic.

His close relationship with Vance, with whom he studied and shares a close friendship, indicate the rising influence of the non-interventionist vice-president in negotiations to resolve the Ukraine crisis.

Vance's Role in Ceasefire Efforts

It was Vance who intervened during Ukraine's president's rocky initial trip to the White House in March and insisted he show Trump more respect. Currently, Ukraine is once again resisting pressure from the US to agree to a quick deal that Ukrainian leaders have described as a surrender.

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

Vance has been a vocal supporter of the recent proposal, which was developed by Witkoff and Trump's relative Jared Kushner, alongside the Russian diplomat Kirill Dmitriev.

“Every criticism of the peace framework the White House is developing either misunderstands the framework or misstates some key situation on the ground,” Vance wrote.

Initial Efforts and European Responses

Vance's initial efforts at hammering out a ceasefire agreement with Russia, while simultaneously attempting to restore relations with Moscow, were unsuccessful and left his team feeling disappointed with their Russian counterparts. Leaders in Europe, meanwhile, were irritated by his initial remarks, in which he charged them of running from their constituents, who Vance said held anti-immigration and right-leaning positions similar to those of Trump's own constituency.

But, the new ceasefire proposal closely resembled his stances, and he has been one of the most assertive advocates for the agreement in the government, even as the US has been under fire for endorsing a peace framework that mostly echoes Vladimir Putin's extreme terms.

In posts this weekend, Vance argued that a ceasefire agreement would have to produce a truce that honored Ukrainian independence, be acceptable to each party, and stop the war from restarting.

“Peace will not be made by failed negotiators or politicians residing in a fantasy land,” he continued. “It might be made by intelligent people living in the real world.”

It was Vance who continued on the introduction of the peace plan in a phone call with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had primarily tasked his team with obtaining a signature on the peace deal before Thanksgiving this Thursday in the United States.

Rubio's Response and Private Concerns

That was a notably more enthusiastic support of the proposal than that given by the top diplomat and national security adviser, Marco Rubio, a more traditional hardliner in the administration who has gone from a shaky position inside the White House to more firm footing.

Rubio was part of a US delegation that went to Geneva this past weekend to confer with Ukrainian leaders to help moderate the original 28-point peace plan in order to make it more acceptable to authorities in Kyiv.

But, his first response to the deal was tepid:

“Stopping a complicated and violent conflict such as the one in Ukraine requires an extensive discussion of serious and realistic ideas,” Rubio wrote over the weekend. “Furthermore, securing a lasting ceasefire will necessitate both sides to agree to challenging but essential concessions. This is the reason we are and will persist to develop a list of possible ideas for resolving this war drawing from input from each party of this war.”

Behind closed doors, he was said to be much more skeptical of the proposal. 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 agreement was merely a preliminary offer from the Russians and not an plan advocated by the White House.

“Rubio made a call to us this afternoon and I believe he emphasized to us that we are the recipients of a offer that was delivered to one of our officials,” 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 authored by the US,” he subsequently wrote. “The framework is offered as a strong framework for ongoing negotiations. It is based on feedback from the Russian side. But, it is also based on previous and ongoing input from Ukraine.”