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The US Army Secretary, Dan Driscoll, was an surprising diplomat for the White House's newest initiative to resolve the conflict in Ukraine. His close relationship with JD Vance has positioned a key ally of the Eurosceptic vice-president at the center of Donald Trump recent effort to conclude the conflict.

Before his last week's visit to Kyiv, Driscoll was unrecognized as a mediator or diplomat, and his initial efforts to promote the agreement to officials in Europe were described as turbulent.

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

The VP's Role in Ceasefire Negotiations

This was Vance who stepped in during Volodymyr Zelenskyy disastrous first trip 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 agree to a quick deal that Ukrainian leaders have described as a capitulation.

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

Vance has been a vocal supporter of the recent proposal, which was crafted by Witkoff and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, together with the Russian diplomat Kirill Dmitriev.

“Every objection of the ceasefire plan the White House is working on either misunderstands the proposal or misstates some critical situation on the ground,” the VP stated.

Early Attempts and EU Reactions

Vance's initial efforts at hammering out a peace deal with Russia, while also seeking to restore ties with Moscow, were unsuccessful and left his team feeling disappointed with their Russian counterparts. European officials, in turn, were angered by his initial remarks, in which he accused them of ignoring their voters, who Vance said held restrictionist and right-leaning views similar to those of Trump's own supporters.

But, the new ceasefire proposal mirrored his stances, and he has been one of the most assertive spokespeople for the deal in the administration, even as the US has been criticized for accepting a peace framework that largely resembles Vladimir Putin's maximalist demands.

In posts this weekend, Vance argued that a ceasefire agreement would have to produce a truce that honored Ukrainian sovereignty, be agreeable to both sides, and prevent the war from resuming.

“A ceasefire won’t be made by failed diplomats or officials residing in a dream world,” he continued. “An agreement could be made by intelligent people operating in the real world.”

It was Vance who followed up on the introduction of the ceasefire proposal in a conversation with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had primarily tasked his team with securing a agreement on the peace deal before Thanksgiving this Thursday in the United States.

Rubio's Response and Internal Concerns

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

Rubio was a member of a US delegation that traveled to Geneva this weekend to confer with Ukrainian leaders to help refine the initial 28-point ceasefire proposal in order to make it more acceptable to leaders in Kyiv.

However, his first response to the agreement was tepid:

“Ending a complicated and violent conflict such as the one in Ukraine demands an extensive exchange of serious and realistic proposals,” Rubio stated recently. “And, securing a durable peace will necessitate both sides to agree to challenging but essential concessions. This is the reason we are and will persist to develop a set of possible solutions for resolving this conflict drawing from feedback from each party of this war.”

Behind closed doors, he was reportedly much more doubtful of the proposal. The Republican senator Mike Rounds stated recently at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had contacted legislators to clarify that the agreement was merely a initial offer from the Russians and not an initiative pushed by the administration.

“Rubio did make a call to us this afternoon and I think he made it very clear to us that we are the receivers of a proposal that was presented to one of our representatives,” stated Rounds. “It is not our recommendation, it is not our ceasefire proposal.”

Rubio acted swiftly to align himself. “This ceasefire plan was authored by the US,” he subsequently stated. “It is offered as a strong structure for ongoing negotiations. It is based on feedback from the Russian side. However, it is also based on previous and ongoing contributions from Ukraine.”