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America's Army Secretary, Dan Driscoll, was an unlikely diplomat for the Trump administration latest initiative to end the conflict in Ukraine. Driscoll's close relationship with JD Vance has placed a key ally of the Eurosceptic vice-president at the forefront of Donald Trump recent push to settle the conflict.

Prior to his recent visit to Kyiv, Driscoll was unrecognized as a mediator or statesman, and his initial efforts to promote the deal to officials in Europe were described as turbulent.

His close relationship with Vance, with whom he studied and maintains a personal bond, signal the resurgence of the isolationist vice-president in negotiations to resolve the Ukraine war.

Vance's Involvement in Peace Efforts

This was Vance who intervened during Ukraine's president's disastrous initial trip to the Trump White House in March and insisted he show Trump more courtesy. Currently, Ukraine is again resisting pressure from the US to accept a swift settlement that local officials have called a surrender.

After a tumultuous first year in office, foreign policy decisions in the White House are said to be influenced by a handful of Trump's key aides, including chief of staff Susie Wiles, rightwing adviser Stephen Miller, diplomat Steve Witkoff, State Department head Marco Rubio, and finally Vance.

Vance has been a vocal supporter of the latest plan, which was crafted by Witkoff and Trump's relative Jared Kushner, together with the Kremlin envoy Kirill Dmitriev.

“Every criticism of the ceasefire plan the administration is developing either misinterprets the proposal or misrepresents some key situation on the ground,” the VP stated.

Initial Attempts and EU Responses

Vance's early attempts at hammering out a peace deal with Russia, while simultaneously attempting to restore relations with Moscow, were fruitless and left his team feeling disappointed with their Russian interlocutors. Leaders in Europe, in turn, were irritated by his early remarks, in which he charged them of ignoring their voters, who Vance claimed held anti-immigration and right-leaning positions close to those of Trump's own supporters.

However, the recently published peace deal mirrored his stances, and he has been one of the most assertive spokespeople for the deal in the government, even as the US has been under fire for accepting a ceasefire plan that largely echoes Vladimir Putin's maximalist demands.

In posts this past weekend, Vance asserted that a ceasefire agreement would have to establish a truce that honored Ukrainian sovereignty, be acceptable to both sides, and stop the conflict from restarting.

“A ceasefire will not be made by failed negotiators or politicians residing in a dream world,” he added. “An agreement might be made by intelligent people living in the actual situation.”

It was Vance who followed up on the introduction of the ceasefire proposal in a phone call with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had primarily instructed his team with obtaining a signature on the ceasefire accord prior to Thanksgiving this week in the United States.

The Secretary of State's Reaction and Internal Doubts

Vance's stance was a distinctly more full-throated support of the proposal than that given by the top diplomat and security advisor, Marco Rubio, a more conventional hawk in the administration who has gone from a shaky position inside the White House to more stable standing.

Rubio was a member of a US team that went to Geneva this weekend to meet with Ukrainian officials to help moderate the original 28-point peace plan in order to make it more palatable to leaders in Kyiv.

But, his first response to the agreement was lukewarm:

“Ending a complex and deadly conflict such as the one in Ukraine demands an thorough discussion of serious and pragmatic proposals,” Rubio stated over the weekend. “And, securing a durable ceasefire will require each party to consent to challenging but necessary concessions. This is the reason we are and will persist to create a list of possible ideas for resolving this conflict drawing from feedback from each party of this war.”

Behind closed doors, he was said to be much more doubtful of the proposal. The GOP lawmaker 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 initial proposal from the Russians and not an plan advocated by the administration.

“The Secretary made a call to us this afternoon and I believe he emphasized to us that we are the recipients of a proposal 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 fall in line. “This ceasefire plan was written by the US,” he subsequently wrote. “The framework is offered as a solid framework for ongoing discussions. It is based on input from the Russian side. But, it is additionally informed by earlier and ongoing input from Ukraine.”