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America's Secretary of the Army, Daniel Driscoll, emerged as an unlikely diplomat for the White House's latest proposal to resolve the conflict in Ukraine. Driscoll's strong relationship with Vice President Vance has positioned a close associate of the Eurosceptic VP at the forefront of Donald Trump latest push to conclude the war.

Before his last week's trip to Kyiv, Driscoll was not known as a mediator or statesman, and his early efforts to promote the agreement to officials in Europe were described as chaotic.

Driscoll's strong ties with Vance, with whom he attended Yale and shares a close friendship, indicate the resurgence of the isolationist VP in negotiations to resolve the Ukraine war.

Vance's Involvement in Ceasefire Efforts

It was Vance who intervened during Ukraine's president's disastrous initial visit to the White House in March and demanded he show Trump more courtesy. Currently, Ukraine is once again resisting pressure from the US to agree to a quick deal that local officials have called a surrender.

After a tumultuous first year in office, international actions in the White House are reportedly shaped by a handful of Trump's top aides, such as chief of staff Susie Wiles, conservative adviser Stephen Miller, envoy Steve Witkoff, State Department head Marco Rubio, and finally Vance.

Vance has been a vocal advocate of the latest plan, which was crafted by Witkoff and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, together with the Russian diplomat Kirill Dmitriev.

“All objection of the peace framework the White House is working on either misunderstands the proposal or misrepresents some critical reality on the ground,” Vance stated.

Initial Efforts and European Responses

Vance's initial efforts at negotiating a peace deal with Russia, while simultaneously attempting to restore relations with Moscow, were unsuccessful and left his camp feeling disappointed with their Russian interlocutors. Leaders in Europe, in turn, were angered by his initial speeches, in which he charged them of running from their constituents, who Vance claimed held restrictionist and conservative views close to those of Trump's own constituency.

However, the new ceasefire proposal mirrored his positions, and he has been one of the most forceful spokespeople for the agreement in the government, even as the US has been criticized for endorsing a peace framework that largely resembles Vladimir Putin's maximalist terms.

In posts this weekend, Vance argued that a peace deal would have to establish a truce that honored Ukrainian sovereignty, be acceptable to each party, and stop the conflict from resuming.

“A ceasefire will not be made by unsuccessful negotiators or politicians residing in a dream world,” he continued. “It could be made by intelligent people living in the real world.”

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

The Secretary of State's Response and Internal Concerns

Vance's stance was a notably more full-throated support of the proposal than that given by the top diplomat and security advisor, Marco Rubio, a more traditional hawk in the government who has transitioned from a shaky position inside the White House to more firm standing.

Rubio was a member of a US delegation that went 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.

But, his first reaction to the agreement was tepid:

“Stopping a complicated and violent war such as the one in Ukraine requires an thorough exchange of substantive and realistic ideas,” Rubio stated recently. “And, securing a durable peace will necessitate each party to consent to difficult but essential compromises. This is the reason we are and will continue to create a list of potential ideas for ending this conflict drawing from feedback from both sides of this conflict.”

In private, he was said to be 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 lawmakers to explain that the deal was just a initial offer from the Russians and not an plan advocated by the White House.

“Rubio made a call to us this afternoon and I think he emphasized to us that we are the recipients of a proposal that was delivered to one of our officials,” said Rounds. “It is not our recommendation, it is not our peace plan.”

Rubio moved quickly to fall in line. “The peace proposal was authored by the US,” he later stated. “It is offered as a solid structure for ongoing discussions. The proposal is derived from input from the Moscow. But, it is also informed by earlier and ongoing input from Ukraine.”