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The US Army Secretary, Dan Driscoll, emerged as an surprising envoy for the Trump administration newest proposal to end the conflict in Ukraine. Driscoll's strong connection with Vice President Vance has positioned a key ally of the Euroskeptic VP at the center of Donald Trump recent effort to settle the war.

Before his recent trip to Kyiv, Driscoll was not known as a mediator or statesman, and his early attempts to promote the agreement to European policymakers were labeled chaotic.

His close relationship with Vance, with whom he studied and shares a personal bond, signal the rising influence of the non-interventionist vice-president in negotiations to resolve the Ukraine war.

Vance's Involvement in Peace Efforts

It was Vance who stepped in during Ukraine's president's disastrous initial trip to the White House in March and insisted he show Trump more courtesy. Now, Ukraine is once again pushing back against demands from the US to agree to a swift settlement that Ukrainian leaders have described as a capitulation.

After a chaotic first year in office, foreign policy decisions in the White House are reportedly shaped by a small group of Trump's key aides, including top aide Susie Wiles, conservative adviser Stephen Miller, diplomat Steve Witkoff, State Department head Marco Rubio, and of course Vance.

Vance has been a outspoken advocate of the latest proposal, which was developed by Witkoff and Trump's relative Jared Kushner, together with the Russian diplomat Kirill Dmitriev.

“All criticism of the peace framework the administration is developing either misunderstands the proposal or misstates some key reality on the ground,” the VP wrote.

Early Efforts and European Responses

Vance's initial efforts at hammering out a ceasefire agreement with Russia, while also attempting to restore relations with Moscow, were unsuccessful and left his team feeling disappointed with their Russian counterparts. European officials, in turn, were irritated by his early remarks, in which he charged them of running from their voters, who Vance claimed held anti-immigration and right-leaning views close to those of Trump's own constituency.

However, the recently published peace deal mirrored his stances, and he has been one of the most assertive spokespeople for the agreement in the government, even as the US has been under fire for accepting a peace framework that largely echoes Vladimir Putin's maximalist terms.

In social media updates this weekend, Vance argued that a ceasefire agreement would have to establish a truce that respected Ukrainian sovereignty, be acceptable to both sides, and prevent the war from restarting.

“Peace won’t be made by unsuccessful negotiators or officials residing in a fantasy land,” he added. “An agreement might be made by intelligent people living in the real world.”

It was Vance who followed up on the introduction of the peace plan in a conversation with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had primarily instructed his team with securing a signature on the peace deal before Thanksgiving this week in the United States.

Rubio's Reaction and Private Doubts

That was a distinctly more enthusiastic endorsement of the plan than that given by the top diplomat and security advisor, Marco Rubio, a more traditional hardliner in the government who has gone from a uncertain position inside the White House to more stable footing.

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

However, his initial response to the agreement was lukewarm:

“Stopping a complicated and violent conflict such as the one in Ukraine requires an thorough discussion of serious and realistic proposals,” Rubio stated recently. “Furthermore, securing a lasting ceasefire will necessitate both sides to consent to difficult but essential concessions. This is the reason we are and will continue to develop a set of possible ideas for ending this conflict based on feedback from each party of this conflict.”

In private, he was said to be much more doubtful of the plan. The GOP lawmaker Mike Rounds said recently at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had contacted legislators to explain that the deal 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 believe he emphasized to us that we are the receivers of a proposal that was delivered to one of our representatives,” said Rounds. “It is not our suggestion, it is not our peace plan.”

Rubio moved quickly to fall in line. “The peace proposal was authored by the US,” he later wrote. “It is presented as a strong structure for continuing negotiations. The proposal is derived from feedback from the Russian side. But, it is also informed by previous and ongoing input from Ukraine.”