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America's Army Secretary, Daniel Driscoll, was an surprising envoy for the White House's newest initiative to end the Russian invasion in Ukraine. Driscoll's close relationship with Vice President Vance has positioned a close associate of the Eurosceptic vice-president at the center of President Trump's recent push to settle the war.

Before his last week's visit to Kyiv, Driscoll was not known as a negotiator or diplomat, and his initial efforts to promote the agreement to officials in Europe were described as turbulent.

Driscoll's strong relationship with Vance, who he studied and maintains a close friendship, indicate the resurgence of the non-interventionist vice-president in talks to resolve the Ukraine crisis.

Vance's Role in Ceasefire Negotiations

This was Vance who stepped in during Volodymyr Zelenskyy disastrous initial trip to the Trump White House in March and demanded he show Trump more respect. Now, Ukraine is again pushing back against demands from the US to agree to a swift settlement that Ukrainian leaders have described as a capitulation.

Following a tumultuous first year in office, international actions in the White House are reportedly shaped by a handful of Trump's top aides, including chief of staff Susie Wiles, rightwing adviser Stephen Miller, diplomat Steve Witkoff, State Department head Marco Rubio, and finally Vance.

Vance has been a outspoken supporter of the latest proposal, which was developed by Witkoff and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, alongside the Kremlin envoy Kirill Dmitriev.

“All objection of the ceasefire plan the administration is working on either misinterprets the proposal or misstates some critical situation on the ground,” Vance wrote.

Initial Attempts and EU Responses

Vance's initial efforts at negotiating a ceasefire agreement with Russia, while simultaneously attempting to restore relations with Moscow, were fruitless and left his camp feeling frustrated with their Russian counterparts. European officials, in turn, were angered by his early remarks, 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.

But, the new peace deal mirrored his stances, and he has been one of the most forceful spokespeople for the deal in the government, even as the US has been under fire for endorsing a ceasefire plan that mostly resembles Vladimir Putin's maximalist demands.

In posts this past weekend, Vance asserted that a peace deal would have to establish a truce that honored Ukrainian sovereignty, be acceptable to both sides, and stop the war from resuming.

“Peace won’t be made by unsuccessful diplomats or officials living in a fantasy land,” he continued. “It could be made by intelligent people operating in the actual situation.”

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

Rubio'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 administration who has transitioned from a shaky position inside the White House to more stable standing.

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

But, his initial response to the agreement was lukewarm:

“Stopping a complicated and deadly war such as the one in Ukraine requires an thorough discussion of serious and realistic ideas,” Rubio wrote over the weekend. “And, achieving a durable peace will necessitate both sides to consent to difficult but essential concessions. This is the reason we are and will continue to create a list of potential solutions for resolving this war drawing from input from both sides of this war.”

In private, he was said to be much more skeptical of the plan. The GOP lawmaker Mike Rounds stated last week at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had contacted legislators to clarify that the agreement was merely a preliminary proposal from the Russians and not an initiative advocated by the administration.

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

Rubio acted swiftly to fall in line. “The peace proposal was authored by the US,” he subsequently wrote. “It is offered as a strong framework for continuing negotiations. It is based on feedback from the Russian side. But, it is additionally informed by previous and current input from Ukraine.”