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The US Secretary of the Army, Dan Driscoll, was an unlikely envoy for the White House's latest initiative to end the Russian invasion in Ukraine. Driscoll's strong relationship with JD Vance has positioned a close associate of the Eurosceptic VP at the center of Donald Trump latest effort to conclude the conflict.

Prior to his recent trip to Kyiv, Driscoll was unrecognized as a negotiator or diplomat, and his initial efforts to sell the deal to European policymakers were labeled turbulent.

His strong relationship with Vance, who he attended Yale and maintains a close friendship, signal the resurgence of the non-interventionist vice-president in negotiations to end the Ukraine crisis.

The VP's Role in Ceasefire Negotiations

This was Vance who stepped in during Volodymyr Zelenskyy rocky initial trip to the Trump White House in March and demanded he show Trump more courtesy. Now, Ukraine is once again resisting pressure from the US to agree to a swift deal that Ukrainian leaders have described as a surrender.

After a chaotic first year in office, foreign policy decisions in the White House are said to be shaped by a handful of Trump's key aides, such as top aide Susie Wiles, conservative adviser Stephen Miller, diplomat Steve Witkoff, secretary of state Marco Rubio, and of course Vance.

Vance has been a vocal supporter of the recent proposal, which was crafted by Witkoff and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, alongside 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 stated.

Early Attempts and European Responses

Vance's early attempts at hammering out a ceasefire agreement with Russia, while also seeking to renew relations with Moscow, were fruitless and left his camp feeling frustrated with their Russian counterparts. European officials, in turn, were irritated by his early remarks, in which he charged them of running from their voters, who Vance said held restrictionist and conservative positions close to those of Trump's own constituency.

But, the new peace deal mirrored his positions, and he has been one of the most assertive spokespeople for the deal in the administration, even as the US has been under fire for accepting a ceasefire plan that mostly echoes Vladimir Putin's extreme terms.

In social media updates this weekend, Vance asserted that a ceasefire agreement would have to produce a ceasefire that honored Ukrainian independence, be agreeable to both sides, and prevent the conflict from restarting.

“A ceasefire will not be made by unsuccessful negotiators or officials living in a fantasy land,” he added. “An agreement could be made by smart people living in the actual situation.”

It was Vance who continued on the presentation of the ceasefire proposal in a phone call with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had primarily instructed his staff with securing a agreement on the peace deal prior to Thanksgiving this Thursday in the United States.

The Secretary of State's Reaction and Internal Doubts

Vance's stance was a notably more enthusiastic support of the proposal than that expressed by the secretary of state and national security adviser, Marco Rubio, a more conventional hardliner in the administration who has gone from a uncertain stature inside the White House to more stable standing.

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

However, his first response to the deal was tepid:

“Ending a complex and deadly conflict such as the one in Ukraine requires an extensive discussion of substantive and realistic proposals,” Rubio wrote over the weekend. “And, achieving a lasting ceasefire will require both sides to consent to challenging but essential concessions. That is why we are and will persist to create a list of possible solutions for resolving this conflict drawing from input from each party of this war.”

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

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

Rubio acted swiftly to align himself. “The peace proposal was authored by the US,” he later wrote. “The framework is offered as a solid structure for continuing negotiations. The proposal is based on input from the Russian side. But, it is also informed by previous and current contributions from Ukraine.”