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America's Secretary of the Army, Dan Driscoll, was an unlikely envoy for the White House's latest proposal to resolve the Russian invasion in Ukraine. Driscoll's close connection with JD Vance has positioned a close associate of the Euroskeptic vice-president at the center of President Trump's latest push to settle the conflict.

Before his recent trip to Kyiv, Driscoll was not known as a mediator or diplomat, and his initial efforts to sell the deal to officials in Europe were labeled chaotic.

Driscoll's strong ties with Vance, with whom he studied and shares a personal bond, indicate the resurgence of the isolationist vice-president in negotiations to end the Ukraine war.

The VP's Involvement in Peace Negotiations

This was Vance who intervened during Volodymyr Zelenskyy rocky first visit to the White House in March and insisted he show Trump more respect. Currently, Ukraine is again pushing back against demands from the US to agree to a swift deal that local officials have described as a surrender.

After a chaotic first year in power, international decisions in the White House are reportedly influenced by a handful of Trump's key advisers, such as top aide Susie Wiles, conservative advisor Stephen Miller, envoy Steve Witkoff, State Department head Marco Rubio, and finally Vance.

Vance has been a outspoken advocate of the recent proposal, which was crafted by Witkoff and Trump's relative Jared Kushner, together with the Russian diplomat Kirill Dmitriev.

“All criticism of the ceasefire plan the White House is working on either misunderstands the framework or misrepresents some key situation on the ground,” Vance wrote.

Initial Attempts and European Reactions

Vance's early attempts at hammering out a ceasefire agreement with Russia, while simultaneously attempting to renew relations with Moscow, were unsuccessful and left his team feeling frustrated with their Russian counterparts. European officials, in turn, were irritated by his initial speeches, in which he charged them of ignoring their voters, who Vance claimed held restrictionist and conservative positions close to those of Trump's own constituency.

However, the new peace deal closely resembled his stances, and he has been one of the most assertive spokespeople for the agreement in the government, even as the US has been criticized for endorsing a peace framework that mostly resembles Vladimir Putin's maximalist demands.

In posts this weekend, Vance argued that a ceasefire agreement would have to produce a ceasefire that respected Ukrainian independence, be acceptable to each party, and prevent the conflict from restarting.

“Peace won’t be made by unsuccessful negotiators or politicians residing in a dream world,” he continued. “An agreement could be made by intelligent people living in the real world.”

Additionally, it was Vance who followed up on the introduction of the peace plan in a phone call with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had mainly tasked his staff with obtaining a agreement on the ceasefire accord before Thanksgiving this week in the United States.

The Secretary of State's Reaction and Internal Doubts

Vance's stance was a distinctly more enthusiastic support of the proposal than that given by the top diplomat and security advisor, Marco Rubio, a more traditional hardliner in the administration who has transitioned from a uncertain stature inside the White House to more firm footing.

Rubio was a member of a US team that went to Geneva this weekend to confer with Ukrainian officials to help refine the original 28-point ceasefire proposal in order to make it more palatable to authorities in Kyiv.

But, his first reaction to the agreement was lukewarm:

“Stopping a complex and deadly war such as the one in Ukraine requires an thorough discussion of serious and realistic ideas,” Rubio wrote recently. “And, securing a durable ceasefire will require both sides to agree to difficult but essential compromises. This is the reason we are and will continue to create a set of possible solutions for resolving this war based on feedback from each party of this war.”

In private, he was reportedly much more doubtful 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 explain that the agreement was merely a initial proposal from the Russians and not an initiative advocated by the White House.

“Rubio did make a call to us this afternoon and I think he emphasized to us that we are the recipients of a offer that was delivered to one of our representatives,” said Rounds. “It is not our recommendation, it is not our ceasefire proposal.”

Rubio moved quickly to fall in line. “This ceasefire plan was written by the US,” he later wrote. “The framework is presented as a strong framework for continuing negotiations. It is derived from input from the Russian side. But, it is also based on earlier and ongoing contributions from Ukraine.”