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The US Secretary of the Army, Daniel Driscoll, was an surprising diplomat for the Trump administration latest proposal to resolve the conflict in Ukraine. Driscoll's strong relationship with Vice President Vance has positioned a key ally of the Euroskeptic vice-president at the center of Donald Trump recent effort to conclude the conflict.

Prior to his recent visit to Kyiv, Driscoll was not known as a negotiator or statesman, and his early efforts to promote the deal to European policymakers were described as turbulent.

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

Vance's Involvement in Peace Negotiations

This was Vance who stepped in during Volodymyr Zelenskyy rocky initial visit to the Trump White House in March and insisted he show Trump more respect. Currently, Ukraine is once again resisting pressure from the US to accept a swift settlement that Ukrainian leaders have described as a capitulation.

Following a tumultuous first year in office, foreign policy actions in the White House are said to be influenced by a handful of Trump's key aides, such as top aide Susie Wiles, rightwing advisor Stephen Miller, envoy Steve Witkoff, secretary of state Marco Rubio, and finally Vance.

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

“Every objection of the peace framework the White House is working on either misunderstands the proposal or misstates some critical reality on the ground,” Vance wrote.

Early Efforts and European Reactions

Vance's early efforts at negotiating a ceasefire agreement with Russia, while also attempting to renew ties with Moscow, were fruitless and left his camp feeling disappointed with their Russian counterparts. European officials, meanwhile, were angered by his early remarks, in which he charged them of ignoring their constituents, who Vance said held restrictionist and conservative positions close to those of Trump's own supporters.

However, the new ceasefire proposal mirrored his stances, and he has been one of the most assertive advocates for the deal in the government, even as the US has been under fire for accepting a ceasefire plan that mostly echoes Vladimir Putin's maximalist terms.

In social media updates this weekend, Vance asserted that a ceasefire agreement would have to establish a ceasefire that respected Ukrainian independence, be agreeable to each party, and stop the conflict from resuming.

“A ceasefire will not be made by failed negotiators or politicians residing in a fantasy land,” he continued. “An agreement could be made by smart people operating in the real world.”

Additionally, it was Vance who continued on the presentation of the ceasefire proposal in a conversation with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had primarily tasked his team with obtaining a signature on the ceasefire accord prior to Thanksgiving this Thursday in the United States.

The Secretary of State's Reaction and Private Doubts

Vance's stance was a notably more full-throated endorsement of the plan than that expressed by the secretary of state and security advisor, Marco Rubio, a more conventional hardliner in the administration who has transitioned from a shaky position inside the White House to more stable footing.

Rubio was part of a US team that went to Geneva this past weekend to meet with Ukrainian officials to help refine the initial 28-point peace plan in order to make it more palatable to authorities in Kyiv.

But, his first reaction to the deal was lukewarm:

“Ending a complex and violent conflict such as the one in Ukraine demands an thorough exchange of serious and pragmatic proposals,” Rubio stated recently. “And, securing a durable peace will necessitate both sides to agree to challenging but necessary concessions. This is the reason we are and will persist to develop a list of potential solutions for resolving this war based on feedback from both sides of this conflict.”

Behind closed doors, he was reportedly much more skeptical of the plan. The Republican senator Mike Rounds said recently at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had called legislators to clarify that the deal was just a initial offer from the Russians and not an plan pushed by the White House.

“The Secretary made a phone call to us this day and I think he made it very clear to us that we are the receivers of a proposal that was delivered to one of our officials,” stated Rounds. “The document is not our suggestion, it is not our ceasefire proposal.”

Rubio acted swiftly to fall in line. “This ceasefire plan was authored by the US,” he later stated. “The framework is presented as a strong structure for continuing negotiations. It is based on feedback from the Moscow. But, it is additionally informed by earlier and ongoing contributions from Ukraine.”