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America's Army Secretary, Daniel Driscoll, emerged as an surprising diplomat for the White House's latest initiative to end the Russian invasion in Ukraine. His strong relationship with Vice President Vance has placed a key ally of the Eurosceptic VP at the center of Donald Trump latest push to conclude the conflict.

Before his last week's visit to Kyiv, Driscoll was unrecognized as a negotiator or diplomat, and his initial attempts to promote the agreement to European policymakers were described as chaotic.

His close ties with Vance, with whom he attended Yale and maintains a close friendship, signal the resurgence of the isolationist VP in talks to end the Ukraine war.

Vance's Role in Ceasefire Efforts

This was Vance who intervened during Volodymyr Zelenskyy disastrous initial visit to the Trump White House in March and demanded he show Trump more courtesy. Now, Ukraine is once again pushing back against demands from the US to agree to a quick deal that Ukrainian leaders have called a surrender.

Following a tumultuous initial year in office, foreign policy actions in the White House are said to be influenced by a small group of Trump's key aides, including top aide Susie Wiles, conservative advisor Stephen Miller, envoy Steve Witkoff, State Department head Marco Rubio, and of course Vance.

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

“All criticism of the ceasefire plan the administration is developing either misunderstands the proposal or misrepresents some critical reality on the ground,” Vance wrote.

Early Attempts and European Responses

Vance's early attempts at hammering out a ceasefire agreement with Russia, while simultaneously attempting to restore ties with Moscow, were unsuccessful and left his team feeling disappointed with their Russian interlocutors. Leaders in Europe, meanwhile, were irritated by his initial speeches, in which he accused them of running from their voters, who Vance claimed held anti-immigration and right-leaning positions close to those of Trump's own constituency.

But, the recently published ceasefire proposal mirrored his stances, and he has been one of the most assertive advocates for the deal in the administration, even as the US has been under fire for accepting a peace framework that largely resembles Vladimir Putin's extreme terms.

In posts this past weekend, Vance asserted that a ceasefire agreement would have to produce a ceasefire that honored Ukrainian sovereignty, be agreeable to each party, and prevent the war from restarting.

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

It was Vance who followed up on the presentation of the ceasefire proposal in a conversation with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had primarily tasked his team with obtaining a signature on the peace deal prior to Thanksgiving this week in the United States.

Rubio's Response and Internal Doubts

That was a notably more full-throated support of the plan than that given by the top diplomat and national security adviser, Marco Rubio, a more conventional hawk in the government who has transitioned from a uncertain stature inside the administration to more firm footing.

Rubio was a member of a US delegation that went to Geneva this weekend to confer with Ukrainian officials to help refine the initial 28-point peace plan in order to make it more palatable to leaders in Kyiv.

But, his first response to the agreement was lukewarm:

“Stopping a complicated and violent war such as the one in Ukraine requires an thorough exchange of serious and realistic ideas,” Rubio wrote recently. “And, securing a durable peace will necessitate both sides to consent to challenging but essential compromises. That is why we are and will persist to develop a set of possible ideas for resolving this war based on input from both sides of this war.”

In private, he was reportedly much more skeptical of the proposal. The Republican senator Mike Rounds said last week at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had contacted lawmakers to clarify that the agreement was merely a preliminary offer from the Russians and not an plan pushed by the White House.

“Rubio made a call to us this afternoon and I believe he emphasized to us that we are the receivers of a offer that was presented to one of our representatives,” stated Rounds. “The document is not our suggestion, it is not our ceasefire proposal.”

Rubio acted swiftly to fall in line. “This ceasefire plan was written by the US,” he later stated. “The framework is offered as a strong framework for ongoing negotiations. It is based on feedback from the Moscow. However, it is also based on previous and current input from Ukraine.”