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The US Army Secretary, Daniel Driscoll, was an unlikely diplomat for the Trump administration latest proposal to resolve the Russian invasion in Ukraine. Driscoll's close connection with JD Vance has placed a close associate of the Eurosceptic VP at the center of President Trump's recent push to settle the war.

Before his recent trip to Kyiv, Driscoll was unrecognized as a negotiator or statesman, and his early attempts to sell the agreement to officials in Europe were labeled turbulent.

His close ties with Vance, who he attended Yale and shares a close friendship, signal the resurgence of the non-interventionist VP in negotiations to resolve the Ukraine crisis.

The VP's Role in Ceasefire Efforts

It was Vance who intervened during Volodymyr Zelenskyy rocky initial trip to the Trump White House in March and insisted he show Trump more respect. Currently, Ukraine is once again pushing back against demands from the US to agree to a quick deal that local officials have described as a capitulation.

After a tumultuous first year in office, foreign policy decisions in the White House are said to be influenced by a handful of Trump's top aides, including top aide Susie Wiles, rightwing adviser Stephen Miller, diplomat Steve Witkoff, secretary of state 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, alongside the Russian diplomat Kirill Dmitriev.

“Every criticism of the ceasefire plan the administration is developing either misinterprets the framework or misstates some critical reality on the ground,” the VP wrote.

Early Attempts and European Responses

Vance's initial efforts at hammering out a ceasefire agreement with Russia, while simultaneously seeking to renew relations with Moscow, were unsuccessful and left his camp feeling frustrated with their Russian counterparts. European officials, in turn, were angered by his initial remarks, in which he charged them of running from their voters, who Vance claimed held anti-immigration and conservative 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 deal in the administration, even as the US has been under fire for accepting a peace framework that largely resembles Vladimir Putin's maximalist demands.

In posts this past weekend, Vance argued that a peace deal would have to produce a ceasefire that honored Ukrainian independence, be agreeable to each party, and stop the conflict from restarting.

“A ceasefire will not be made by unsuccessful diplomats or officials residing in a fantasy land,” he continued. “An agreement might be made by smart people operating in the actual situation.”

Additionally, it was Vance who continued on the introduction of the peace plan in a phone call with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had primarily instructed his team with securing a agreement on the ceasefire accord prior to Thanksgiving this week in the United States.

Rubio's Reaction and Private Concerns

That was a notably more enthusiastic endorsement of the proposal than that expressed by the top diplomat and security advisor, Marco Rubio, a more conventional hawk in the administration who has gone from a uncertain stature inside the administration to more firm footing.

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

But, his first reaction to the agreement was lukewarm:

“Stopping a complicated and deadly war such as the one in Ukraine demands an thorough exchange of serious and realistic proposals,” Rubio wrote over the weekend. “Furthermore, securing a durable peace will require each party to agree to challenging but necessary compromises. That is why we are and will persist to develop a set of potential 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 GOP lawmaker Mike Rounds stated last week at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had contacted legislators to explain that the agreement was just a preliminary proposal from the Russians and not an plan pushed by the White House.

“Rubio did make a phone call to us this day and I think he emphasized to us that we are the recipients of a offer that was delivered to one of our officials,” stated Rounds. “It is not our suggestion, it is not our ceasefire proposal.”

Rubio moved quickly to align himself. “The peace proposal was written by the US,” he subsequently wrote. “The framework is offered as a strong structure for ongoing negotiations. The proposal is derived from input from the Russian side. However, it is additionally based on earlier and current contributions from Ukraine.”