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America's Secretary of the Army, Daniel Driscoll, was an surprising 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 Euroskeptic vice-president at the center of Donald Trump recent effort to conclude the war.

Prior to his recent trip to Kyiv, Driscoll was unrecognized as a negotiator or diplomat, and his early efforts to promote the deal to officials in Europe were described as chaotic.

His strong relationship with Vance, who he studied and shares a personal bond, indicate the rising influence of the non-interventionist VP in talks to end the Ukraine war.

The VP's Role in Ceasefire Efforts

This was Vance who intervened during Ukraine's president's rocky first trip to the White House in March and insisted he show Trump more respect. Now, Ukraine is again resisting demands from the US to accept a quick deal that local officials have called a surrender.

Following a chaotic first year in power, international decisions in the White House are said to be influenced by a small group of Trump's top aides, such as top aide Susie Wiles, rightwing advisor Stephen Miller, diplomat Steve Witkoff, secretary of state Marco Rubio, and finally Vance.

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

“Every objection of the peace framework the administration is developing either misunderstands the framework or misrepresents some key reality on the ground,” the VP wrote.

Initial Efforts and European Reactions

Vance's early efforts at negotiating a ceasefire agreement with Russia, while also seeking to restore ties with Moscow, were fruitless and left his team feeling frustrated with their Russian interlocutors. Leaders in Europe, in turn, were irritated by his initial speeches, in which he charged them of ignoring their constituents, who Vance said held restrictionist and conservative positions similar to those of Trump's own constituency.

But, the recently published ceasefire proposal closely resembled his stances, and he has been one of the most assertive spokespeople for the agreement in the administration, even as the US has been criticized for accepting a ceasefire plan that largely resembles Vladimir Putin's maximalist demands.

In posts this past weekend, Vance asserted that a ceasefire agreement would have to produce a ceasefire that honored Ukrainian independence, be acceptable to each party, and prevent the war from restarting.

“A ceasefire won’t be made by failed negotiators or politicians living in a dream world,” he added. “An agreement could be made by intelligent people living in the real world.”

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

The Secretary of State's Response and Private Concerns

Vance's stance was a notably more full-throated endorsement of the proposal than that expressed by the top diplomat and national security adviser, Marco Rubio, a more conventional hardliner in the administration who has gone from a shaky position inside the administration to more stable standing.

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

But, his initial reaction to the deal was tepid:

“Stopping a complex and deadly conflict such as the one in Ukraine requires an thorough exchange of substantive and realistic proposals,” Rubio wrote recently. “And, securing a durable ceasefire will require both sides to consent to difficult but necessary compromises. This is the reason we are and will persist to create a list of possible ideas for resolving this conflict based on 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 last week at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had called legislators to explain that the deal was merely a initial offer from the Russians and not an initiative advocated by the administration.

“Rubio did make 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 representatives,” said Rounds. “The document is not our suggestion, it is not our peace plan.”

Rubio acted swiftly to align himself. “This ceasefire plan was written by the US,” he subsequently wrote. “It is offered as a strong structure for ongoing discussions. The proposal is based on feedback from the Russian side. But, it is additionally informed by previous and ongoing input from Ukraine.”