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America's Secretary of the Army, Daniel Driscoll, was an surprising diplomat for the White House's latest proposal to end the Russian invasion in Ukraine. Driscoll's strong relationship with Vice President Vance has placed a key ally of the Eurosceptic VP at the forefront of Donald Trump recent effort to settle the conflict.

Before his last week's visit to Kyiv, Driscoll was not known as a mediator or statesman, and his early attempts to sell the deal to European policymakers were labeled chaotic.

His close relationship with Vance, who he attended Yale and shares a close friendship, signal the resurgence of the isolationist VP in talks to resolve the Ukraine war.

Vance's Involvement in Ceasefire Negotiations

It was Vance who stepped in during Volodymyr Zelenskyy rocky initial visit to the Trump White House in March and demanded he show Trump more courtesy. Currently, Ukraine is once again pushing back against demands from the US to accept a quick settlement that local officials have called a surrender.

After a tumultuous first year in power, foreign policy decisions in the White House are said to be influenced by a handful of Trump's key aides, such as chief of staff Susie Wiles, conservative advisor Stephen Miller, diplomat Steve Witkoff, State Department head Marco Rubio, and of course Vance.

Vance has been a vocal supporter of the recent proposal, which was crafted by Witkoff and Trump's relative Jared Kushner, together with the Kremlin envoy Kirill Dmitriev.

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

Early Efforts and EU Reactions

Vance's early attempts at negotiating a peace deal with Russia, while also attempting to restore ties with Moscow, were fruitless and left his team feeling disappointed with their Russian counterparts. European officials, in turn, were angered by his early speeches, in which he accused them of running from their voters, who Vance claimed held anti-immigration and right-leaning positions similar to those of Trump's own supporters.

However, the new ceasefire proposal mirrored his positions, and he has been one of the most forceful advocates for the agreement in the administration, even as the US has been under fire for endorsing a ceasefire plan that largely echoes Vladimir Putin's maximalist demands.

In social media updates this weekend, Vance asserted that a peace deal would have to establish a ceasefire that honored Ukrainian sovereignty, be agreeable to each party, and stop the conflict from resuming.

“Peace won’t be made by unsuccessful negotiators or officials residing in a fantasy land,” he added. “It could be made by smart people operating in the actual situation.”

It was Vance who followed up on the presentation of the ceasefire proposal in a phone call with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had mainly instructed his staff with securing a agreement on the peace deal before Thanksgiving this week in the United States.

Rubio's Response and Private Concerns

That was a distinctly more full-throated endorsement of the plan than that expressed by the secretary of state and national security adviser, Marco Rubio, a more conventional hardliner in the government who has gone from a shaky stature inside the White House to more firm standing.

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

However, his first response to the deal was lukewarm:

“Ending a complex and deadly war such as the one in Ukraine requires an thorough discussion of serious and realistic ideas,” Rubio stated over the weekend. “Furthermore, achieving a durable ceasefire will require both sides to consent to challenging but necessary compromises. That is why we are and will continue to create a list of possible solutions for ending this war based on feedback from both sides of this war.”

Behind closed doors, he was said to be much more skeptical of the plan. The GOP lawmaker Mike Rounds stated recently at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had contacted lawmakers to clarify that the deal was merely a preliminary proposal from the Russians and not an initiative pushed by the administration.

“The Secretary did make a call to us this day and I believe he made it very clear to us that we are the receivers of a offer that was delivered to one of our representatives,” said Rounds. “The document is not our recommendation, it is not our peace plan.”

Rubio acted swiftly to fall in line. “The peace proposal was written by the US,” he subsequently wrote. “It is presented as a solid structure for ongoing discussions. It is derived from feedback from the Moscow. However, it is additionally informed by earlier and current contributions from Ukraine.”