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America's Secretary of the Army, Daniel Driscoll, emerged as an unlikely diplomat for the White House's newest initiative to end the Russian invasion in Ukraine. His close relationship with Vice President Vance has positioned a close associate of the Eurosceptic VP at the forefront of Donald Trump recent effort to settle the war.

Before his last week's visit to Kyiv, Driscoll was unrecognized as a negotiator or statesman, and his early attempts to sell the deal to officials in Europe were described as turbulent.

His close relationship with Vance, who he attended Yale and maintains a personal bond, signal the resurgence of the isolationist vice-president in talks to end the Ukraine war.

Vance's Involvement in Peace Negotiations

It was Vance who stepped in during Ukraine's president's disastrous first visit to the White House in March and demanded he show Trump more courtesy. Now, Ukraine is again resisting pressure from the US to accept a swift deal that Ukrainian leaders have described as a capitulation.

After a chaotic first year in power, international actions in the White House are reportedly shaped by a handful of Trump's key advisers, such as top aide Susie Wiles, conservative advisor Stephen Miller, envoy Steve Witkoff, secretary of state Marco Rubio, and finally Vance.

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

“Every objection of the peace framework the White House is developing either misinterprets the framework or misrepresents some key situation on the ground,” the VP stated.

Early Attempts and EU Reactions

Vance's initial attempts at hammering out a peace deal with Russia, while simultaneously seeking to renew relations with Moscow, were fruitless and left his team feeling disappointed with their Russian interlocutors. European officials, in turn, were irritated by his early speeches, in which he accused them of ignoring their constituents, who Vance said held restrictionist and conservative positions close to those of Trump's own constituency.

However, the new ceasefire proposal mirrored his stances, and he has been one of the most forceful spokespeople for the agreement in the government, even as the US has been criticized for accepting a ceasefire plan that mostly echoes Vladimir Putin's maximalist terms.

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

“Peace won’t be made by failed diplomats or politicians living in a dream world,” he continued. “An agreement might be made by intelligent people living in the actual situation.”

Additionally, it was Vance who followed up on the introduction of the ceasefire proposal in a phone call with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had primarily tasked his staff with obtaining a agreement on the ceasefire accord before Thanksgiving this week in the United States.

The Secretary of State's Reaction and Internal Concerns

Vance's stance was a distinctly more full-throated endorsement of the proposal than that given by the top diplomat and national security adviser, Marco Rubio, a more conventional hawk in the administration who has transitioned from a shaky position inside the administration to more stable standing.

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

But, his initial reaction to the agreement was lukewarm:

“Stopping a complicated and deadly conflict such as the one in Ukraine demands an thorough discussion of serious and pragmatic ideas,” Rubio stated over the weekend. “Furthermore, achieving a lasting peace will require each party to agree to difficult but essential compromises. This is the reason we are and will continue to develop a list of potential ideas 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 said recently at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had called lawmakers to clarify that the deal was just a initial offer from the Russians and not an plan pushed by the administration.

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

Rubio moved quickly to fall in line. “This ceasefire plan was authored by the US,” he later stated. “It is offered as a strong structure for ongoing negotiations. It is derived from input from the Moscow. However, it is additionally informed by previous and ongoing contributions from Ukraine.”