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The US Secretary of the Army, Daniel Driscoll, was an surprising envoy for the Trump administration latest initiative to resolve the conflict in Ukraine. His close connection with Vice President Vance has placed a close associate of the Eurosceptic vice-president at the forefront of Donald Trump recent push to conclude the conflict.

Prior to his last week's trip to Kyiv, Driscoll was not known as a negotiator or diplomat, and his initial efforts to promote the agreement to European policymakers were described as turbulent.

His strong ties with Vance, with whom he attended Yale and shares a personal bond, indicate the rising influence of the isolationist vice-president in talks to resolve the Ukraine war.

Vance's Role in Peace Efforts

It 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. Now, Ukraine is once again pushing back against demands from the US to accept a swift settlement that Ukrainian leaders have called a capitulation.

After a tumultuous initial year in power, foreign policy decisions in the White House are said to be influenced by a small group of Trump's top aides, such as top aide Susie Wiles, conservative advisor Stephen Miller, diplomat Steve Witkoff, State Department head Marco Rubio, and finally Vance.

Vance has been a outspoken supporter of the recent plan, which was crafted by Witkoff and Trump's relative Jared Kushner, alongside the Russian diplomat Kirill Dmitriev.

“Every criticism of the peace framework the White House is working on either misunderstands the framework or misstates some key reality on the ground,” the VP wrote.

Initial Attempts and EU Responses

Vance's initial efforts at hammering out a ceasefire agreement with Russia, while also seeking to renew relations with Moscow, were unsuccessful and left his camp feeling disappointed with their Russian counterparts. Leaders in Europe, meanwhile, were angered by his initial speeches, in which he accused them of ignoring their constituents, who Vance said held restrictionist and conservative positions similar 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 deal in the government, even as the US has been criticized for accepting a peace framework that mostly resembles Vladimir Putin's maximalist demands.

In posts this weekend, Vance argued that a peace deal would have to produce a truce that respected Ukrainian independence, be acceptable to both sides, and prevent the war from resuming.

“A ceasefire will not be made by failed diplomats or politicians living in a dream world,” he added. “It could be made by intelligent people living in the real world.”

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

Rubio's Response and Private Doubts

Vance's stance was a notably more enthusiastic support of the proposal than that expressed by the secretary of state and security advisor, Marco Rubio, a more traditional hawk in the administration who has gone from a uncertain position inside the White House to more stable footing.

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 peace plan in order to make it more acceptable to authorities in Kyiv.

But, his first response to the deal was tepid:

“Ending a complex and deadly war such as the one in Ukraine demands an extensive discussion of substantive and realistic proposals,” Rubio wrote over the weekend. “And, achieving a lasting peace will require each party to agree to challenging but necessary compromises. This is the reason we are and will persist to develop a list of possible ideas for resolving this war drawing from feedback from each party of this war.”

In private, he was reportedly much more skeptical of the proposal. The Republican senator Mike Rounds stated last week at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had called legislators to clarify that the deal was merely a preliminary proposal from the Russians and not an plan advocated by the administration.

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

Rubio moved quickly to align himself. “The peace proposal was authored by the US,” he subsequently stated. “It is offered as a solid framework for ongoing discussions. It is derived from feedback from the Russian side. However, it is also based on earlier and ongoing input from Ukraine.”