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America's Secretary of the Army, Dan Driscoll, emerged as an surprising diplomat for the White House's newest proposal to resolve the conflict in Ukraine. His strong relationship with Vice President Vance has placed a key ally of the Euroskeptic vice-president at the center of President Trump's latest effort to conclude the war.

Prior to his last week's visit to Kyiv, Driscoll was not known as a mediator or diplomat, and his early attempts to sell the deal to officials in Europe were labeled turbulent.

Driscoll's close ties with Vance, with whom he studied and shares a personal bond, signal the rising influence of the isolationist vice-president in talks to end the Ukraine crisis.

The VP's Role in Ceasefire Efforts

It was Vance who intervened during Volodymyr Zelenskyy disastrous first visit to the Trump White House in March and insisted he show Trump more courtesy. Now, Ukraine is once again resisting demands from the US to accept a swift settlement that local officials have described as a capitulation.

Following a tumultuous initial year in office, international actions in the White House are reportedly influenced by a small group of Trump's top aides, including chief of staff Susie Wiles, rightwing advisor Stephen Miller, envoy Steve Witkoff, State Department head Marco Rubio, and finally Vance.

Vance has been a vocal advocate of the latest proposal, which was crafted by Witkoff and Trump's relative Jared Kushner, alongside the Kremlin envoy Kirill Dmitriev.

“Every criticism of the ceasefire plan the administration is working on either misinterprets the framework or misstates some critical situation on the ground,” Vance wrote.

Initial Attempts and European Responses

Vance's early attempts at negotiating a peace deal with Russia, while simultaneously seeking to renew ties with Moscow, were fruitless and left his team feeling disappointed with their Russian counterparts. European officials, meanwhile, were angered by his early speeches, in which he charged them of running from their constituents, who Vance claimed held anti-immigration 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 spokespeople for the agreement in the administration, even as the US has been criticized for endorsing a ceasefire plan that mostly echoes Vladimir Putin's extreme demands.

In posts this weekend, Vance argued that a ceasefire agreement would have to produce a truce that honored Ukrainian independence, be agreeable to each party, and stop the conflict from resuming.

“Peace will not be made by failed negotiators or officials living in a dream world,” he continued. “An agreement might be made by intelligent people operating in the actual situation.”

It was Vance who continued on the presentation of the ceasefire proposal in a conversation with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had mainly instructed his staff with obtaining a agreement on the ceasefire accord before Thanksgiving this Thursday in the United States.

Rubio's Reaction and Private Doubts

That was a notably more enthusiastic endorsement of the proposal than that expressed by the secretary of state and national security adviser, Marco Rubio, a more conventional hawk in the government who has gone from a shaky stature inside the White House to more firm standing.

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

However, his first response to the agreement was lukewarm:

“Ending a complicated and deadly war such as the one in Ukraine requires an thorough exchange of substantive and pragmatic proposals,” Rubio stated over the weekend. “Furthermore, securing a durable ceasefire will require both sides to consent to challenging but necessary concessions. That is why we are and will continue to create a list of possible ideas for resolving this conflict based on feedback from each party of this war.”

In private, he was reportedly much more skeptical of the proposal. The GOP lawmaker Mike Rounds said recently at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had contacted legislators to clarify that the agreement was merely a preliminary proposal from the Russians and not an plan pushed by the administration.

“Rubio did make a phone call to us this day 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,” stated Rounds. “It is not our recommendation, it is not our peace plan.”

Rubio acted swiftly to fall in line. “The peace proposal was authored by the US,” he subsequently stated. “It is presented as a solid framework for continuing discussions. The proposal is based on input from the Russian side. But, it is additionally informed by earlier and current contributions from Ukraine.”