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The US Secretary of the Army, Daniel Driscoll, was an surprising envoy for the White House's latest proposal to resolve the Russian invasion in Ukraine. Driscoll's close relationship with JD Vance has placed a key ally of the Eurosceptic VP at the center of President Trump's recent effort to conclude the war.

Prior to his last week's trip to Kyiv, Driscoll was unrecognized as a mediator or diplomat, and his initial attempts to sell the agreement to European policymakers were described as turbulent.

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

The VP's Role in Ceasefire Negotiations

This was Vance who stepped in during Volodymyr Zelenskyy disastrous 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 swift deal that local officials have called a capitulation.

Following a tumultuous first year in power, international actions in the White House are reportedly influenced by a small group of Trump's key aides, including chief of staff Susie Wiles, conservative adviser Stephen Miller, envoy Steve Witkoff, secretary of state Marco Rubio, and of course Vance.

Vance has been a vocal supporter of the recent proposal, which was developed by Witkoff and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, together with the Russian diplomat Kirill Dmitriev.

“Every objection of the peace framework the White House is working on either misunderstands the proposal or misstates some critical reality on the ground,” the VP wrote.

Initial Attempts and EU Responses

Vance's initial efforts at negotiating a peace deal with Russia, while simultaneously attempting to renew ties with Moscow, were fruitless and left his team feeling frustrated with their Russian counterparts. European officials, meanwhile, were irritated by his early speeches, in which he accused them of running from their voters, who Vance said held anti-immigration and right-leaning views close to those of Trump's own constituency.

But, the new peace deal closely resembled his stances, and he has been one of the most forceful spokespeople for the deal in the administration, even as the US has been criticized for accepting a ceasefire plan that largely echoes Vladimir Putin's maximalist terms.

In social media updates this past weekend, Vance asserted that a peace deal would have to establish a truce that respected Ukrainian independence, be acceptable to each party, and stop 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 smart people living in the actual situation.”

It was Vance who continued on the presentation of the ceasefire proposal in a phone call with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had primarily instructed his staff with securing a signature on the ceasefire accord before Thanksgiving this week in the United States.

Rubio's Response and Private Concerns

That was a distinctly more full-throated support of the proposal than that expressed by the secretary of state and security advisor, Marco Rubio, a more traditional hardliner in the government who has transitioned from a uncertain stature inside the administration to more firm footing.

Rubio was part of a US delegation that traveled to Geneva this weekend to meet with Ukrainian leaders to help moderate the original 28-point ceasefire proposal in order to make it more palatable to leaders in Kyiv.

However, his initial response to the deal was lukewarm:

“Ending a complex and deadly conflict such as the one in Ukraine requires an extensive exchange of serious and realistic proposals,” Rubio wrote over the weekend. “And, securing a durable ceasefire will necessitate each party to consent to challenging but essential compromises. This is the reason we are and will continue to create a set of possible solutions for ending this war drawing from feedback from both sides of this war.”

In private, he was reportedly 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 contacted legislators to clarify that the agreement was merely a initial offer from the Russians and not an plan pushed by the administration.

“Rubio did make a phone call to us this afternoon 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. “It is not our suggestion, it is not our ceasefire proposal.”

Rubio moved quickly to align himself. “This ceasefire plan was authored by the US,” he later stated. “It is presented as a strong framework for continuing discussions. The proposal is based on input from the Moscow. However, it is additionally informed by previous and ongoing contributions from Ukraine.”