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The US Secretary of the Army, Dan Driscoll, emerged as an surprising envoy for the White House's newest initiative to end the conflict in Ukraine. Driscoll's close relationship with Vice President Vance has positioned a key ally of the Euroskeptic vice-president at the forefront of Donald Trump latest effort to conclude the war.

Before his last week's visit to Kyiv, Driscoll was not known as a mediator or statesman, and his early efforts to promote the deal to officials in Europe were described as chaotic.

Driscoll's close ties with Vance, with whom he attended Yale and maintains a close friendship, signal the resurgence of the non-interventionist vice-president in talks to resolve the Ukraine crisis.

Vance's Involvement in Peace Negotiations

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

Following a chaotic first year in office, foreign policy actions in the White House are said to be shaped by a small group of Trump's key advisers, including top aide Susie Wiles, rightwing adviser Stephen Miller, diplomat Steve Witkoff, State Department head Marco Rubio, and of course Vance.

Vance has been a outspoken advocate of the recent plan, which was developed by Witkoff and Trump's relative Jared Kushner, alongside the Russian diplomat Kirill Dmitriev.

“All criticism of the peace framework the administration is working on either misinterprets the framework or misrepresents some key reality on the ground,” Vance wrote.

Initial Efforts and European Responses

Vance's initial efforts at hammering out a ceasefire agreement with Russia, while also seeking to restore ties with Moscow, were unsuccessful and left his camp feeling disappointed with their Russian counterparts. European officials, meanwhile, were angered by his early remarks, in which he charged them of ignoring their constituents, who Vance said held anti-immigration and right-leaning positions similar to those of Trump's own constituency.

But, the recently published ceasefire proposal closely resembled his stances, and he has been one of the most assertive advocates for the deal in the government, even as the US has been under fire for endorsing a peace framework that largely resembles Vladimir Putin's maximalist terms.

In social media updates this weekend, Vance argued that a peace deal would have to produce a truce that honored Ukrainian sovereignty, be acceptable to both sides, and prevent the war from restarting.

“Peace will not be made by failed negotiators or politicians living in a dream world,” he continued. “It might be made by smart people living in the actual situation.”

It was Vance who followed up on the presentation of the peace plan in a conversation with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had primarily instructed his team with securing a signature on the peace deal prior to Thanksgiving this Thursday in the United States.

The Secretary of State's Response and Private Doubts

Vance's stance was a distinctly more enthusiastic support of the proposal than that expressed by the top diplomat and security advisor, Marco Rubio, a more conventional hawk in the government who has gone from a shaky position inside the White House to more firm footing.

Rubio was part of a US team that went to Geneva this weekend to meet with Ukrainian leaders to help moderate the original 28-point peace plan in order to make it more palatable to authorities in Kyiv.

However, his initial reaction to the agreement was lukewarm:

“Stopping a complicated and deadly conflict such as the one in Ukraine requires an thorough discussion of serious and pragmatic proposals,” Rubio stated recently. “And, securing a durable peace will necessitate both sides to consent to challenging but necessary concessions. This is the reason we are and will continue to develop a set of possible solutions for resolving this conflict drawing from feedback from each party of this conflict.”

Behind closed doors, he was said to be much more doubtful of the proposal. The Republican senator Mike Rounds said last week at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had called lawmakers to explain that the deal was merely a initial proposal from the Russians and not an plan pushed by the White House.

“Rubio made a phone call to us this day and I think he made it very clear to us that we are the receivers of a offer that was delivered to one of our representatives,” stated Rounds. “It is not our suggestion, it is not our peace plan.”

Rubio acted swiftly to fall in line. “This ceasefire plan was written by the US,” he subsequently wrote. “It is presented as a solid framework for continuing negotiations. The proposal is based on input from the Russian side. However, it is additionally informed by previous and current contributions from Ukraine.”