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America's Army Secretary, Daniel Driscoll, was an surprising envoy for the White House's newest proposal to resolve the Russian invasion in Ukraine. His close connection with Vice President Vance has positioned a key ally of the Euroskeptic VP at the center of Donald Trump recent effort 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 sell the agreement to officials in Europe were labeled chaotic.

His close relationship with Vance, who he studied and maintains a close friendship, signal the resurgence of the isolationist VP in talks to end the Ukraine war.

Vance's Involvement in Peace Negotiations

It was Vance who stepped in during Ukraine's president's rocky initial visit to the Trump White House in March and insisted he show Trump more respect. Currently, Ukraine is again pushing back against demands from the US to accept a swift settlement that local officials have called a surrender.

After a tumultuous first year in power, international decisions in the White House are said to be shaped by a handful of Trump's top aides, including chief of staff Susie Wiles, conservative advisor Stephen Miller, envoy Steve Witkoff, State Department head Marco Rubio, and of course Vance.

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

“All objection of the ceasefire plan the White House is working on either misunderstands the proposal or misstates some critical reality on the ground,” Vance wrote.

Initial Attempts and European Reactions

Vance's initial efforts at negotiating a peace deal with Russia, while also attempting to renew relations with Moscow, were unsuccessful and left his team feeling disappointed with their Russian interlocutors. Leaders in Europe, in turn, were irritated by his initial remarks, in which he accused them of ignoring their voters, who Vance claimed held restrictionist and conservative positions close to those of Trump's own constituency.

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

In social media updates this weekend, Vance asserted that a ceasefire agreement would have to produce a truce that honored Ukrainian sovereignty, be agreeable to each party, and stop the war from restarting.

“A ceasefire won’t be made by unsuccessful negotiators or officials residing in a fantasy land,” he continued. “It might be made by smart people living in the actual situation.”

It was Vance who followed up on the presentation of the ceasefire proposal in a conversation 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 Internal Concerns

Vance's stance was a distinctly more enthusiastic endorsement of the proposal than that expressed by the secretary of state and security advisor, Marco Rubio, a more traditional hardliner in the government who has transitioned from a shaky position inside the administration to more firm standing.

Rubio was a member of a US delegation that went to Geneva this weekend to meet with Ukrainian officials to help refine the initial 28-point peace plan in order to make it more acceptable to leaders in Kyiv.

But, his initial response to the deal was tepid:

“Stopping a complicated and deadly conflict such as the one in Ukraine requires an thorough discussion of serious and pragmatic proposals,” Rubio stated over the weekend. “And, securing a lasting ceasefire will require both sides to agree to challenging but essential concessions. That is why we are and will continue to create a set of possible ideas for resolving this conflict drawing from feedback from each party of this conflict.”

Behind closed doors, he was reportedly much more doubtful of the plan. The Republican senator Mike Rounds stated last week at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had contacted legislators to clarify that the deal was just a preliminary proposal from the Russians and not an plan pushed by the White House.

“Rubio made a 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 recommendation, it is not our peace plan.”

Rubio moved quickly to align himself. “This ceasefire plan was authored by the US,” he later stated. “The framework is presented as a strong structure for continuing negotiations. It is derived from input from the Russian side. But, it is also based on previous and ongoing contributions from Ukraine.”