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The US Army Secretary, Dan Driscoll, emerged as an surprising diplomat for the White House's latest initiative to resolve the conflict in Ukraine. His strong relationship with Vice President Vance has positioned a close associate of the Eurosceptic vice-president at the center of Donald Trump latest effort to conclude the war.

Prior to his last week's trip to Kyiv, Driscoll was not known as a negotiator or diplomat, and his initial efforts to sell the deal to officials in Europe were described as turbulent.

Driscoll's strong ties with Vance, who he attended Yale and shares a close friendship, indicate the rising influence of the isolationist vice-president in talks to resolve the Ukraine crisis.

The VP's Role in Ceasefire Negotiations

This was Vance who stepped in during Volodymyr Zelenskyy rocky initial trip to the Trump White House in March and demanded he show Trump more respect. Currently, Ukraine is once again pushing back against pressure from the US to accept a swift settlement that local officials have called a capitulation.

After a chaotic initial year in power, international actions in the White House are reportedly shaped by a small group of Trump's key advisers, such as chief of staff Susie Wiles, conservative advisor Stephen Miller, diplomat Steve Witkoff, State Department head Marco Rubio, and of course Vance.

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

“Every criticism of the peace framework the White House is developing either misinterprets the framework or misstates some critical reality on the ground,” the VP stated.

Early Efforts and European Responses

Vance's initial efforts at negotiating a ceasefire agreement with Russia, while also attempting to renew relations with Moscow, were fruitless and left his team feeling disappointed with their Russian counterparts. European officials, in turn, were irritated by his early speeches, in which he accused them of ignoring their voters, who Vance said held anti-immigration and conservative positions close to those of Trump's own constituency.

But, the new ceasefire proposal mirrored his positions, 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 mostly echoes Vladimir Putin's extreme terms.

In posts this weekend, Vance asserted that a peace deal would have to produce a ceasefire that honored Ukrainian independence, be agreeable to both sides, and stop the war from resuming.

“Peace won’t be made by unsuccessful diplomats or officials residing in a fantasy land,” he continued. “An agreement might be made by smart people living in the real world.”

It was Vance who followed up on the presentation of the ceasefire proposal in a phone call with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had primarily instructed his team with obtaining a agreement on the peace deal prior to Thanksgiving this week in the United States.

Rubio's Reaction and Private Concerns

That was a notably more enthusiastic endorsement of the proposal than that given by the top diplomat and security advisor, Marco Rubio, a more conventional hardliner in the government who has gone from a shaky stature inside the administration to more firm footing.

Rubio was part of a US delegation that traveled to Geneva this past weekend to meet with Ukrainian leaders to help refine the original 28-point peace plan in order to make it more palatable to leaders in Kyiv.

But, his initial reaction to the deal was tepid:

“Stopping a complex and violent conflict such as the one in Ukraine demands an extensive discussion of serious and realistic proposals,” Rubio stated recently. “And, achieving a lasting peace will necessitate both sides to consent to difficult but necessary compromises. That is why we are and will persist to develop a set of potential ideas for resolving this war drawing from feedback from both sides of this conflict.”

In private, he was said to be much more skeptical of the proposal. The Republican senator Mike Rounds stated recently at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had contacted lawmakers to explain that the agreement was merely a preliminary proposal from the Russians and not an plan advocated by the administration.

“Rubio did make a call to us this afternoon and I believe he emphasized to us that we are the receivers of a offer that was delivered to one of our representatives,” said Rounds. “The document is not our suggestion, it is not our ceasefire proposal.”

Rubio acted swiftly to align himself. “This ceasefire plan was written by the US,” he subsequently stated. “The framework is offered as a strong structure for continuing negotiations. The proposal is derived from input from the Russian side. However, it is additionally informed by previous and ongoing contributions from Ukraine.”