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The US Army Secretary, Dan Driscoll, was an surprising diplomat for the Trump administration newest proposal to end the conflict in Ukraine. His close connection with Vice President Vance has positioned a close associate of the Euroskeptic vice-president at the forefront of Donald Trump latest effort to settle the conflict.

Before his last week's visit to Kyiv, Driscoll was unrecognized as a negotiator or statesman, and his early attempts to promote the deal to European policymakers were described as turbulent.

His strong relationship with Vance, with whom he attended Yale and maintains a close friendship, signal the rising influence of the isolationist VP in negotiations to resolve the Ukraine war.

The VP's Involvement in Peace Negotiations

It was Vance who stepped in during Ukraine's president's disastrous first trip to the White House in March and insisted he show Trump more respect. Currently, Ukraine is again resisting pressure from the US to accept a quick settlement that Ukrainian leaders have described as a surrender.

Following a tumultuous first year in office, international decisions in the White House are reportedly shaped by a handful 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 vocal supporter of the recent proposal, which was developed by Witkoff and Trump's relative Jared Kushner, together with the Kremlin envoy Kirill Dmitriev.

“Every criticism of the peace framework the administration is working on either misinterprets the proposal or misrepresents some key reality on the ground,” Vance wrote.

Initial Efforts and EU Responses

Vance's initial efforts at negotiating a peace deal with Russia, while simultaneously seeking to restore relations with Moscow, were fruitless and left his team feeling disappointed with their Russian counterparts. European officials, meanwhile, were irritated by his initial remarks, in which he charged them of running from their constituents, who Vance claimed held anti-immigration and right-leaning positions similar 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 under fire for endorsing a peace framework that largely resembles Vladimir Putin's extreme terms.

In social media updates this past weekend, Vance argued that a ceasefire agreement would have to establish a ceasefire that respected Ukrainian sovereignty, be acceptable to each party, and prevent the conflict from resuming.

“A ceasefire won’t be made by failed diplomats or politicians residing in a fantasy land,” he continued. “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 securing a agreement on the peace deal prior to Thanksgiving this Thursday in the United States.

The Secretary of State's Response and Internal Concerns

That was a notably more full-throated support of the proposal than that given by the secretary of state and national security adviser, Marco Rubio, a more traditional hawk in the government who has gone from a shaky position inside the White House to more stable standing.

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

However, his initial reaction to the deal was lukewarm:

“Ending a complex and violent conflict such as the one in Ukraine demands an extensive discussion of serious and realistic proposals,” Rubio stated recently. “And, achieving a durable peace will necessitate both sides to consent to challenging but essential compromises. This is the reason we are and will continue to develop a list of potential solutions for resolving this conflict drawing from feedback from each party of this war.”

Behind closed doors, he was reportedly much more skeptical of the proposal. The Republican senator Mike Rounds stated last week at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had contacted lawmakers to explain that the agreement was merely a initial proposal from the Russians and not an initiative advocated by the administration.

“The Secretary made a phone call to us this day and I believe he made it very clear to us that we are the receivers of a proposal that was delivered to one of our officials,” said Rounds. “It is not our recommendation, it is not our ceasefire proposal.”

Rubio acted swiftly to align himself. “The peace proposal was authored by the US,” he subsequently wrote. “It is offered as a solid framework for ongoing negotiations. The proposal is derived from input from the Russian side. But, it is additionally based on earlier and current input from Ukraine.”