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The US Secretary of the Army, Dan Driscoll, was an unlikely diplomat for the White House's latest proposal to end the conflict in Ukraine. Driscoll's strong connection 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 conflict.

Before his last week's trip to Kyiv, Driscoll was unrecognized as a mediator or statesman, and his initial efforts to sell the deal to officials in Europe were described as turbulent.

His close ties with Vance, who he attended Yale and maintains a personal bond, signal the rising influence of the isolationist VP in talks to resolve the Ukraine crisis.

The VP's Role in Peace Negotiations

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

Following a chaotic initial year in office, international decisions in the White House are said to be shaped by a small group of Trump's key advisers, including top aide Susie Wiles, rightwing advisor Stephen Miller, diplomat Steve Witkoff, secretary of state Marco Rubio, and of course Vance.

Vance has been a outspoken advocate of the latest plan, which was crafted by Witkoff and Trump's relative Jared Kushner, alongside the Kremlin envoy Kirill Dmitriev.

“All objection of the ceasefire plan the White House is developing either misinterprets the proposal or misstates some critical situation on the ground,” the VP stated.

Initial Efforts and EU Responses

Vance's early attempts at hammering out a ceasefire agreement with Russia, while simultaneously seeking to restore relations with Moscow, were unsuccessful and left his team feeling frustrated with their Russian interlocutors. Leaders in Europe, meanwhile, were irritated by his early remarks, in which he accused them of ignoring their voters, who Vance claimed held restrictionist and right-leaning views close to those of Trump's own constituency.

But, the recently published peace deal mirrored his positions, and he has been one of the most forceful spokespeople for the agreement in the administration, even as the US has been under fire for endorsing a peace framework that mostly echoes Vladimir Putin's maximalist demands.

In posts this weekend, Vance argued that a ceasefire agreement would have to establish a truce that honored Ukrainian sovereignty, be acceptable to each party, and prevent the conflict from restarting.

“A ceasefire will not be made by unsuccessful negotiators or officials living in a fantasy land,” he continued. “An agreement might be made by intelligent people living in the real world.”

It was Vance who continued on the introduction of the ceasefire proposal in a phone call with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had mainly tasked his staff with securing a agreement on the peace deal before Thanksgiving this Thursday in the United States.

Rubio's Reaction and Private Doubts

That was a notably more enthusiastic support of the plan than that expressed by the top diplomat and security advisor, Marco Rubio, a more conventional hawk in the government who has transitioned from a shaky position inside the White House to more stable standing.

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

But, his initial reaction to the agreement was lukewarm:

“Ending a complicated and deadly war such as the one in Ukraine requires an extensive discussion of substantive and pragmatic proposals,” Rubio wrote recently. “Furthermore, securing a durable ceasefire will necessitate each party to agree to difficult but necessary compromises. This is the reason we are and will continue to create a list of potential solutions for resolving this conflict based on feedback from each party of this conflict.”

In private, he was reportedly 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 contacted lawmakers to explain that the deal was merely a preliminary offer from the Russians and not an initiative pushed by the White House.

“The Secretary did make a phone call to us this afternoon and I think 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 suggestion, it is not our peace plan.”

Rubio acted swiftly to fall in line. “This ceasefire plan was written by the US,” he later stated. “The framework is offered as a solid structure for ongoing negotiations. The proposal is derived from feedback from the Russian side. However, it is additionally informed by previous and ongoing input from Ukraine.”