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The US Army Secretary, Daniel Driscoll, emerged as an surprising envoy for the Trump administration newest proposal to end the Russian invasion in Ukraine. Driscoll's strong relationship with Vice President Vance has positioned a close associate of the Eurosceptic VP at the forefront of President Trump's latest push to settle the war.

Before his recent trip to Kyiv, Driscoll was unrecognized as a negotiator or diplomat, and his initial attempts to promote the deal to European policymakers were labeled turbulent.

Driscoll's close relationship with Vance, who he attended Yale and shares a close friendship, signal the resurgence of the isolationist vice-president in talks to end the Ukraine war.

The VP's Involvement in Peace Efforts

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

Following a chaotic first year in office, international actions in the White House are reportedly shaped by a handful of Trump's top aides, such as top aide Susie Wiles, rightwing advisor Stephen Miller, diplomat Steve Witkoff, State Department head Marco Rubio, and of course Vance.

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

“Every objection of the ceasefire plan the White House is developing either misunderstands the framework or misstates some critical situation on the ground,” the VP wrote.

Early Attempts and EU Reactions

Vance's initial attempts at negotiating a peace deal with Russia, while also attempting to renew relations with Moscow, were unsuccessful and left his team feeling disappointed with their Russian interlocutors. European officials, meanwhile, were irritated by his initial remarks, in which he charged them of running from their voters, who Vance claimed held restrictionist and right-leaning positions close to those of Trump's own constituency.

However, the new ceasefire proposal closely resembled his positions, and he has been one of the most assertive advocates for the agreement in the administration, even as the US has been under fire for accepting a ceasefire plan that largely resembles Vladimir Putin's extreme demands.

In social media updates this past weekend, Vance argued that a peace deal would have to produce a truce that honored Ukrainian sovereignty, be acceptable to each party, and prevent the war from resuming.

“A ceasefire will not be made by unsuccessful diplomats or politicians residing in a fantasy land,” he continued. “It could be made by intelligent people operating in the real world.”

It was Vance who followed up on the presentation of the ceasefire proposal in a phone call with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had primarily tasked his staff with securing a signature on the ceasefire accord prior to Thanksgiving this week in the United States.

The Secretary of State's Response and Private Doubts

Vance's stance was a notably more full-throated support of the proposal than that expressed by the secretary of state and security advisor, Marco Rubio, a more traditional hawk in the administration who has transitioned from a shaky stature inside the administration to more firm footing.

Rubio was a member of a US team that went to Geneva this past weekend to confer with Ukrainian leaders to help moderate the original 28-point ceasefire proposal in order to make it more acceptable to leaders in Kyiv.

However, his first response to the deal was lukewarm:

“Ending a complicated and violent conflict such as the one in Ukraine demands an extensive exchange of substantive and pragmatic proposals,” Rubio stated recently. “Furthermore, achieving a durable ceasefire will necessitate each party to consent to difficult but essential compromises. This is the reason we are and will continue to develop a set of possible ideas for ending this war drawing from feedback from each party of this war.”

Behind closed doors, he was reportedly much more doubtful of the plan. The GOP lawmaker Mike Rounds said last week at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had called lawmakers to clarify that the deal was just a initial offer from the Russians and not an plan pushed by the administration.

“The Secretary made a phone call to us this afternoon and I believe he made it very clear to us that we are the recipients of a proposal that was presented to one of our officials,” said Rounds. “It is not our suggestion, it is not our peace plan.”

Rubio moved quickly to align himself. “This ceasefire plan was authored by the US,” he later wrote. “The framework is offered as a solid structure for continuing negotiations. It is derived from feedback from the Moscow. However, it is also based on previous and current contributions from Ukraine.”