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The US Secretary of the Army, Dan Driscoll, emerged as an unlikely diplomat for the White House's latest initiative to resolve the conflict in Ukraine. Driscoll's close relationship with JD Vance has positioned a key ally of the Eurosceptic VP at the center of Donald Trump recent effort to conclude the war.

Prior to his recent trip to Kyiv, Driscoll was not known as a negotiator or diplomat, and his early efforts to promote the deal to officials in Europe were described as turbulent.

Driscoll's close relationship with Vance, with whom he attended Yale and shares a personal bond, signal the resurgence of the non-interventionist vice-president in negotiations to end the Ukraine war.

Vance's Role in Peace Negotiations

This was Vance who intervened during Volodymyr Zelenskyy rocky first trip to the White House in March and insisted he show Trump more courtesy. Now, Ukraine is once again pushing back against demands from the US to accept a quick deal that local officials have called a capitulation.

After a chaotic first year in power, international decisions in the White House are reportedly influenced by a small group of Trump's key advisers, including chief of staff Susie Wiles, conservative advisor Stephen Miller, envoy Steve Witkoff, secretary of state Marco Rubio, and of course Vance.

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

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

Early Efforts and European Responses

Vance's early attempts at hammering out a peace deal with Russia, while also attempting to renew relations with Moscow, were unsuccessful and left his team feeling frustrated with their Russian counterparts. Leaders in Europe, meanwhile, were angered by his early speeches, in which he charged them of running from their constituents, who Vance said held anti-immigration and conservative positions close to those of Trump's own constituency.

However, the recently published 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 criticized for accepting a peace framework that mostly echoes Vladimir Putin's maximalist demands.

In posts this weekend, Vance asserted that a ceasefire agreement would have to establish a ceasefire that honored Ukrainian independence, be acceptable to both sides, and prevent the war from resuming.

“A ceasefire won’t be made by failed negotiators or officials residing in a dream world,” he continued. “An agreement could be made by intelligent people operating in the real world.”

Additionally, it was Vance who continued on the presentation of the peace plan in a phone call with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had mainly tasked his team with securing a signature on the peace deal prior to Thanksgiving this Thursday in the United States.

Rubio's Response and Internal Doubts

Vance's stance was a notably more enthusiastic endorsement of the plan than that expressed by the secretary of state and national security adviser, Marco Rubio, a more conventional hawk in the administration who has gone from a uncertain stature inside the White House to more firm footing.

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

However, his initial response to the deal was lukewarm:

“Ending a complex and violent war such as the one in Ukraine demands an extensive discussion of serious and realistic proposals,” Rubio stated recently. “And, securing a lasting ceasefire will require both sides to agree to difficult but necessary compromises. This is the reason we are and will persist to create a set of potential ideas for ending this conflict based on input from each party of this war.”

Behind closed doors, he was said to be much more doubtful of the plan. The Republican senator Mike Rounds stated last week at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had contacted legislators to clarify that the deal was just a preliminary proposal from the Russians and not an initiative pushed by the White House.

“Rubio did make a phone call to us this afternoon and I think he made it very clear to us that we are the recipients of a offer that was presented to one of our officials,” stated Rounds. “It is not our recommendation, it is not our peace plan.”

Rubio acted swiftly to align himself. “The peace proposal was written by the US,” he later stated. “The framework is offered as a solid structure for ongoing negotiations. The proposal is derived from input from the Russian side. But, it is also based on previous and ongoing input from Ukraine.”