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The US Army Secretary, Dan Driscoll, was an unlikely envoy 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 President Trump's recent effort to settle the war.

Prior to his last week's visit to Kyiv, Driscoll was unrecognized as a mediator or statesman, and his early attempts to sell the deal to officials in Europe were labeled chaotic.

His strong relationship with Vance, with whom he attended Yale and shares a personal bond, signal the rising influence of the non-interventionist VP in talks to end the Ukraine crisis.

Vance's Involvement in Ceasefire Efforts

This was Vance who intervened during Volodymyr Zelenskyy disastrous first trip to the Trump White House in March and demanded he show Trump more respect. Now, Ukraine is once again pushing back against pressure from the US to accept a swift settlement that local officials have called a capitulation.

Following a tumultuous first year in office, international actions in the White House are reportedly shaped by a small group of Trump's top aides, including top aide Susie Wiles, rightwing advisor Stephen Miller, envoy Steve Witkoff, secretary of state Marco Rubio, and finally Vance.

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

“Every criticism of the ceasefire plan the White House is working on either misunderstands the framework or misrepresents some key reality on the ground,” Vance stated.

Initial Attempts and European Reactions

Vance's early efforts at hammering out a peace deal with Russia, while also attempting to restore ties with Moscow, were unsuccessful and left his camp feeling disappointed with their Russian interlocutors. European officials, in turn, were angered by his initial remarks, in which he accused them of running from their constituents, who Vance claimed held anti-immigration and right-leaning views similar to those of Trump's own constituency.

But, the recently published peace deal closely resembled his stances, and he has been one of the most forceful spokespeople for the agreement in the administration, even as the US has been criticized for accepting a ceasefire plan that mostly echoes Vladimir Putin's maximalist terms.

In posts this past weekend, Vance asserted that a ceasefire agreement would have to establish a truce that honored Ukrainian sovereignty, be agreeable to both sides, and stop the conflict from resuming.

“Peace won’t be made by failed diplomats or officials residing in a dream world,” he continued. “It could be made by intelligent people living in the real world.”

Additionally, it was Vance who followed up on the introduction of the peace plan in a conversation with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had primarily instructed his staff with obtaining a signature on the peace deal before Thanksgiving this Thursday in the United States.

The Secretary of State's Response and Internal Doubts

That was a distinctly more full-throated endorsement of the plan than that expressed by the top diplomat and security advisor, Marco Rubio, a more conventional hardliner in the government who has transitioned from a uncertain stature inside the White House to more stable standing.

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

However, his first response to the agreement was tepid:

“Stopping a complex and violent war such as the one in Ukraine demands an thorough exchange of serious and realistic ideas,” Rubio wrote over the weekend. “And, achieving a lasting peace will require both sides to consent to difficult but essential compromises. That is why we are and will continue to develop a set of possible ideas for ending this conflict based on feedback from each party of this conflict.”

Behind closed doors, he was reportedly much more skeptical of the proposal. The GOP lawmaker Mike Rounds said last week at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had contacted legislators to explain that the deal was just a preliminary proposal from the Russians and not an plan pushed by the White House.

“Rubio made a call to us this day and I think he made it very clear to us that we are the recipients of a offer that was delivered to one of our officials,” said Rounds. “The document is not our suggestion, it is not our peace plan.”

Rubio moved quickly to align himself. “The peace proposal was authored by the US,” he later wrote. “The framework is offered as a solid structure for continuing negotiations. The proposal is derived from input from the Moscow. But, it is additionally based on earlier and current input from Ukraine.”