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The US Secretary of the Army, Daniel Driscoll, was an surprising diplomat for the Trump administration newest initiative to end the Russian invasion in Ukraine. Driscoll's close connection with Vice President Vance has positioned a key ally of the Euroskeptic vice-president at the center of President Trump's recent push to settle the conflict.

Prior to his recent visit to Kyiv, Driscoll was not known as a negotiator or statesman, and his initial attempts to promote the agreement to officials in Europe were described as chaotic.

His close relationship with Vance, with whom he studied and maintains a close friendship, signal the resurgence of the isolationist VP in negotiations to resolve the Ukraine war.

Vance's Role in Peace Negotiations

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

Following a tumultuous first year in power, international actions in the White House are reportedly influenced by a small group of Trump's key advisers, such as top aide Susie Wiles, conservative advisor Stephen Miller, envoy Steve Witkoff, State Department head Marco Rubio, and of course Vance.

Vance has been a outspoken advocate of the recent proposal, which was crafted by Witkoff and Trump's relative Jared Kushner, together with the Russian diplomat Kirill Dmitriev.

“Every criticism of the ceasefire plan the White House is developing either misunderstands the proposal or misstates some key reality on the ground,” Vance stated.

Initial Attempts and EU Responses

Vance's initial attempts at negotiating a peace deal with Russia, while also seeking to restore ties with Moscow, were fruitless and left his camp feeling disappointed with their Russian interlocutors. European officials, in turn, were irritated by his early speeches, in which he accused them of running from their voters, who Vance claimed held anti-immigration and conservative positions similar to those of Trump's own constituency.

However, the recently published peace deal closely resembled his stances, and he has been one of the most assertive spokespeople for the deal in the government, even as the US has been under fire for accepting a peace framework that mostly resembles Vladimir Putin's maximalist terms.

In social media updates this past weekend, Vance asserted that a peace deal would have to produce a truce that respected Ukrainian independence, be acceptable to each party, and stop the war from resuming.

“Peace will not be made by failed negotiators or officials living in a fantasy land,” he continued. “An agreement could be made by smart people living in the real world.”

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

The Secretary of State's Response and Private Concerns

Vance's stance was a distinctly more enthusiastic support of the plan than that expressed by the secretary of state and security advisor, Marco Rubio, a more traditional hawk in the government who has transitioned from a shaky position inside the White House to more stable footing.

Rubio was a member of a US team that traveled to Geneva this weekend to meet with Ukrainian officials to help moderate the initial 28-point ceasefire proposal in order to make it more acceptable to authorities in Kyiv.

But, his initial response to the deal was lukewarm:

“Stopping a complex and violent conflict such as the one in Ukraine requires an extensive discussion of serious and realistic ideas,” Rubio wrote over the weekend. “And, securing a durable peace will require both sides to agree to difficult but essential concessions. That is why we are and will continue to create a set of potential solutions for ending this conflict based on input from each party of this war.”

In private, he was said to be much more doubtful of the plan. The GOP lawmaker Mike Rounds said last week at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had called legislators to clarify that the deal was merely a initial proposal from the Russians and not an plan advocated by the administration.

“The Secretary made a phone call to us this afternoon and I believe he emphasized to us that we are the receivers of a proposal that was presented to one of our officials,” stated Rounds. “The document 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 wrote. “The framework is presented as a solid framework for continuing negotiations. The proposal is derived from input from the Russian side. However, it is also based on previous and ongoing contributions from Ukraine.”