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The US Army Secretary, Daniel Driscoll, was an unlikely diplomat for the White House's newest proposal to end the conflict in Ukraine. His close connection with JD Vance has placed a key ally of the Euroskeptic VP at the center of President Trump's latest push to conclude the war.

Prior to his recent visit to Kyiv, Driscoll was unrecognized as a mediator or statesman, and his early efforts to sell the agreement to European policymakers were described as chaotic.

His close ties with Vance, who he studied and shares a close friendship, indicate the resurgence of the isolationist VP in negotiations to end the Ukraine crisis.

The VP's Role in Peace Negotiations

It was Vance who stepped in during Volodymyr Zelenskyy rocky first trip to the White House in March and insisted he show Trump more respect. Now, Ukraine is again resisting pressure from the US to agree to a quick deal that Ukrainian leaders have called a capitulation.

After a tumultuous initial year in office, foreign policy actions in the White House are reportedly shaped by a handful of Trump's key aides, including chief of staff Susie Wiles, conservative 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 crafted by Witkoff and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, alongside the Kremlin envoy Kirill Dmitriev.

“Every criticism of the ceasefire plan the White House is developing either misunderstands the framework or misrepresents some key reality on the ground,” Vance wrote.

Initial Efforts and EU Reactions

Vance's early efforts at hammering out a peace deal with Russia, while also seeking to renew ties with Moscow, were fruitless and left his camp feeling frustrated with their Russian counterparts. European officials, meanwhile, were angered by his initial speeches, in which he accused them of running from their constituents, who Vance claimed held anti-immigration and conservative positions similar to those of Trump's own supporters.

However, the new peace deal closely resembled his positions, and he has been one of the most assertive advocates for the deal 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 past weekend, Vance asserted that a ceasefire agreement would have to produce a truce that respected Ukrainian sovereignty, be agreeable to each party, and stop the war from resuming.

“Peace won’t be made by failed diplomats or officials living in a fantasy land,” he continued. “An agreement might be made by smart people living in the actual situation.”

Additionally, it was Vance who followed up on the introduction of the peace plan in a conversation with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had mainly instructed his staff with obtaining a agreement on the peace deal before Thanksgiving this week in the United States.

The Secretary of State's Response and Internal Doubts

That was a notably more full-throated endorsement of the proposal than that given by the top diplomat and national security adviser, Marco Rubio, a more traditional hardliner in the administration who has gone from a uncertain position inside the White House to more firm footing.

Rubio was a member of a US delegation that traveled to Geneva this past weekend to confer with Ukrainian leaders to help refine the initial 28-point peace plan in order to make it more acceptable to leaders in Kyiv.

But, his initial reaction to the deal was lukewarm:

“Ending a complicated and violent war such as the one in Ukraine requires an thorough exchange of substantive and realistic proposals,” Rubio stated recently. “And, securing a durable ceasefire will require each party to agree to challenging but necessary concessions. That is why we are and will persist to develop a set of possible solutions for ending this war drawing from input from both sides of this war.”

Behind closed doors, he was reportedly much more skeptical of the proposal. The Republican senator Mike Rounds stated recently at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had called lawmakers to clarify that the deal was just a preliminary offer from the Russians and not an plan pushed by the administration.

“Rubio made a call to us this afternoon and I think he emphasized to us that we are the receivers of a offer that was presented to one of our representatives,” said Rounds. “It is not our suggestion, it is not our ceasefire proposal.”

Rubio acted swiftly to fall in line. “This ceasefire plan was authored by the US,” he later wrote. “The framework is presented as a solid framework for ongoing discussions. It is derived from feedback from the Moscow. But, it is additionally informed by previous and current input from Ukraine.”