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America's Army Secretary, Daniel Driscoll, emerged as an unlikely diplomat for the White House's latest proposal to resolve the Russian invasion in Ukraine. His close connection with Vice President Vance has positioned a close associate of the Eurosceptic vice-president at the forefront of Donald Trump recent effort to settle the war.

Before his last week's visit to Kyiv, Driscoll was unrecognized as a mediator or statesman, and his initial efforts to sell the deal to European policymakers were labeled turbulent.

His close ties with Vance, who he attended Yale and maintains a personal bond, signal the rising influence of the isolationist vice-president in negotiations to resolve the Ukraine war.

Vance's Involvement in Peace Efforts

It was Vance who stepped in during Volodymyr Zelenskyy disastrous initial trip to the Trump White House in March and insisted he show Trump more courtesy. Now, Ukraine is again resisting demands from the US to agree to a quick deal that Ukrainian leaders have described as a capitulation.

After a chaotic first year in office, international actions in the White House are said to be shaped by a handful of Trump's top advisers, such as top aide Susie Wiles, conservative advisor Stephen Miller, diplomat Steve Witkoff, State Department head Marco Rubio, and of course Vance.

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

“Every objection of the peace framework the White House is working on either misunderstands the proposal or misstates some key situation on the ground,” Vance stated.

Initial Efforts and EU Responses

Vance's initial attempts at hammering out a peace deal with Russia, while also attempting to restore ties with Moscow, were fruitless and left his team feeling frustrated with their Russian counterparts. Leaders in Europe, meanwhile, were angered by his initial speeches, in which he charged them of running from their constituents, who Vance said held restrictionist and conservative views close to those of Trump's own constituency.

But, the new ceasefire proposal closely resembled his stances, and he has been one of the most assertive advocates for the deal in the administration, even as the US has been under fire for endorsing a peace framework that largely resembles Vladimir Putin's maximalist demands.

In posts 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 conflict from resuming.

“A ceasefire will not be made by failed diplomats or politicians residing in a dream world,” he continued. “An agreement could be made by intelligent people operating in the real world.”

Additionally, it was Vance who followed up on the presentation of the ceasefire proposal in a phone call with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had mainly tasked his team with securing a signature on the peace deal before Thanksgiving this Thursday in the United States.

Rubio's Reaction and Internal Concerns

That was a notably more enthusiastic endorsement of the proposal than that expressed by the top diplomat and national security adviser, Marco Rubio, a more conventional hawk in the administration who has transitioned from a uncertain stature inside the administration to more firm footing.

Rubio was a member of a US delegation that went to Geneva this past weekend to meet with Ukrainian leaders to help moderate the initial 28-point ceasefire proposal in order to make it more palatable to authorities in Kyiv.

But, his initial response to the deal was tepid:

“Stopping a complex and violent war such as the one in Ukraine requires an thorough discussion of substantive and pragmatic ideas,” Rubio wrote recently. “Furthermore, securing a durable ceasefire will require each party to consent to challenging but necessary compromises. That is why we are and will continue to create a list of potential ideas for resolving this conflict based on input from both sides of this conflict.”

In private, he was said to be much more doubtful of the proposal. The Republican senator Mike Rounds stated last week at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had called lawmakers to clarify that the agreement was just a preliminary offer from the Russians and not an plan advocated by the White House.

“The Secretary made a phone call to us this afternoon and I believe he emphasized to us that we are the receivers of a offer that was presented to one of our officials,” stated Rounds. “It is not our suggestion, it is not our ceasefire proposal.”

Rubio acted swiftly to fall in line. “This ceasefire plan was written by the US,” he subsequently wrote. “It is offered as a solid structure for continuing negotiations. It is based on feedback from the Russian side. However, it is additionally based on previous and current input from Ukraine.”