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America's Secretary of the Army, Dan Driscoll, emerged as an surprising envoy for the Trump administration latest initiative to resolve the conflict in Ukraine. Driscoll's close relationship with JD Vance has placed a key ally of the Eurosceptic VP at the forefront of Donald Trump recent effort to conclude the conflict.

Before his recent visit to Kyiv, Driscoll was unrecognized as a negotiator or statesman, and his initial attempts to promote the deal to officials in Europe were described as turbulent.

His strong ties with Vance, who he attended Yale and shares a close friendship, indicate the resurgence of the non-interventionist vice-president in talks to resolve the Ukraine war.

Vance's Involvement in Ceasefire Efforts

This was Vance who stepped in during Ukraine's president's rocky first visit to the Trump White House in March and demanded he show Trump more courtesy. Now, Ukraine is once again pushing back against demands from the US to accept a quick deal that Ukrainian leaders have called a capitulation.

After a tumultuous first year in office, international actions in the White House are reportedly influenced by a small group of Trump's top advisers, such as chief of staff Susie Wiles, rightwing adviser Stephen Miller, diplomat Steve Witkoff, secretary of state Marco Rubio, and of course 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 criticism of the ceasefire plan the White House is working on either misinterprets the proposal or misstates some key reality on the ground,” the VP wrote.

Early Attempts and EU Responses

Vance's initial efforts at hammering out a peace deal with Russia, while simultaneously seeking to restore relations with Moscow, were unsuccessful and left his camp feeling frustrated with their Russian interlocutors. European officials, in turn, were angered by his initial speeches, in which he charged them of running from their voters, who Vance said held anti-immigration and right-leaning positions close to those of Trump's own constituency.

However, the recently published peace deal mirrored his stances, and he has been one of the most forceful advocates for the agreement in the government, even as the US has been criticized for accepting a peace framework that largely resembles Vladimir Putin's extreme terms.

In social media updates this past weekend, Vance argued that a peace deal would have to establish a truce that respected Ukrainian independence, be agreeable to each party, and stop the conflict from restarting.

“Peace will not be made by failed diplomats or politicians living in a fantasy land,” he added. “It could be made by smart people operating in the real world.”

It was Vance who followed up on the presentation of the peace plan in a phone call with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had mainly tasked his team with obtaining a signature on the peace deal before Thanksgiving this week in the United States.

Rubio's Reaction and Internal Concerns

Vance's stance was a distinctly more full-throated support of the proposal than that given by the secretary of state and national security adviser, Marco Rubio, a more conventional hardliner in the administration who has gone from a uncertain stature inside the administration to more stable footing.

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

But, his initial reaction to the agreement was tepid:

“Stopping a complicated and deadly conflict such as the one in Ukraine requires an extensive exchange of serious and realistic proposals,” Rubio stated over the weekend. “Furthermore, securing a lasting peace will necessitate each party to agree to difficult but necessary concessions. That is why we are and will persist to create a list of possible ideas for resolving this war based on feedback from each party of this conflict.”

Behind closed doors, he was said to be much more skeptical of the plan. The GOP lawmaker Mike Rounds stated recently at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had called legislators to explain that the agreement was just a preliminary proposal from the Russians and not an initiative advocated by the administration.

“The Secretary did make a call to us this day and I believe he emphasized to us that we are the receivers of a proposal that was delivered to one of our representatives,” said Rounds. “It is not our recommendation, it is not our ceasefire proposal.”

Rubio acted swiftly to align himself. “The peace proposal was authored by the US,” he subsequently wrote. “The framework is offered as a strong framework for continuing negotiations. It is based on feedback from the Moscow. However, it is additionally based on previous and current contributions from Ukraine.”