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The US Secretary of the Army, Dan Driscoll, was an surprising diplomat for the Trump administration newest initiative to end the Russian invasion in Ukraine. His close connection with Vice President Vance has placed a close associate of the Eurosceptic vice-president at the forefront of President Trump's latest effort to conclude the war.

Prior to his last week's visit to Kyiv, Driscoll was unrecognized as a mediator or statesman, and his early efforts to sell the deal to European policymakers were labeled turbulent.

Driscoll's strong relationship with Vance, who he attended Yale and maintains a personal bond, indicate the rising influence of the non-interventionist vice-president in talks to end the Ukraine war.

Vance's Involvement in Peace Negotiations

It was Vance who intervened during Ukraine's president's rocky first visit to the Trump White House in March and demanded he show Trump more courtesy. Currently, Ukraine is once again pushing back against pressure from the US to accept a quick deal that local officials have called a capitulation.

After a tumultuous initial year in power, foreign policy actions in the White House are reportedly shaped by a handful of Trump's top advisers, including top aide Susie Wiles, conservative adviser Stephen Miller, envoy Steve Witkoff, State Department head Marco Rubio, and of course Vance.

Vance has been a vocal advocate of the recent proposal, which was developed by Witkoff and Trump's relative Jared Kushner, together with the Kremlin envoy Kirill Dmitriev.

“All objection of the ceasefire plan the administration is working on either misunderstands the proposal or misstates some key reality on the ground,” Vance stated.

Early Attempts and EU Responses

Vance's initial attempts at negotiating a peace deal with Russia, while simultaneously attempting to renew relations with Moscow, were fruitless and left his team feeling frustrated with their Russian interlocutors. European officials, meanwhile, were angered by his early remarks, in which he charged them of ignoring their voters, who Vance said held restrictionist and conservative views similar to those of Trump's own supporters.

But, the recently published 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 criticized for endorsing a ceasefire plan that mostly resembles Vladimir Putin's extreme demands.

In posts this weekend, Vance asserted that a peace deal would have to produce a truce that honored Ukrainian sovereignty, be acceptable to each party, and stop the war from resuming.

“A ceasefire will not be made by failed diplomats or officials living in a fantasy land,” he added. “It might be made by smart people operating in the real world.”

Additionally, it was Vance who continued on the introduction of the ceasefire proposal in a phone call with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had primarily instructed his team with securing a signature on the ceasefire accord before Thanksgiving this week in the United States.

The Secretary of State's Response and Private Concerns

That was a distinctly more full-throated support of the plan than that expressed by the secretary of state and national security adviser, Marco Rubio, a more traditional hawk in the government who has transitioned from a shaky position inside the White House to more stable footing.

Rubio was a member of a US delegation that traveled 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 first response to the agreement was lukewarm:

“Stopping a complicated and deadly war such as the one in Ukraine requires an extensive discussion of serious and realistic proposals,” Rubio wrote over the weekend. “Furthermore, securing a durable ceasefire will require both sides to consent to difficult but essential compromises. That is why we are and will continue to create a set of possible ideas for ending this war drawing from input from both sides of this war.”

Behind closed doors, he was said to be much more doubtful of the proposal. The GOP lawmaker Mike Rounds said last week at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had contacted legislators to explain that the agreement was just a initial offer from the Russians and not an initiative advocated by the administration.

“The Secretary did make a phone call to us this day 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,” said Rounds. “The document is not our recommendation, it is not our ceasefire proposal.”

Rubio acted swiftly to align himself. “This ceasefire plan was written by the US,” he later stated. “It is offered as a strong framework for continuing discussions. It is based on input from the Moscow. But, it is also based on earlier and current input from Ukraine.”