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The US Army Secretary, Daniel Driscoll, emerged as an surprising diplomat for the Trump administration latest proposal to end the Russian invasion in Ukraine. Driscoll's close relationship with Vice President Vance has placed a key ally of the Euroskeptic VP at the forefront of Donald Trump recent push to conclude the war.

Before his last week's visit to Kyiv, Driscoll was unrecognized as a mediator or diplomat, and his early attempts to sell the deal to officials in Europe were labeled turbulent.

His strong relationship with Vance, with whom he studied and maintains a close friendship, signal the rising influence of the non-interventionist VP in negotiations to resolve the Ukraine crisis.

Vance's Involvement in Peace Negotiations

It was Vance who stepped in during Ukraine's president's rocky initial trip to the Trump White House in March and insisted he show Trump more courtesy. Now, Ukraine is once again resisting pressure from the US to agree to a quick settlement that Ukrainian leaders have described as a capitulation.

After a tumultuous initial year in power, international actions in the White House are reportedly influenced by a small group of Trump's top advisers, including top aide Susie Wiles, rightwing adviser Stephen Miller, envoy Steve Witkoff, secretary of state Marco Rubio, and finally Vance.

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

“All criticism of the peace framework the White House is developing either misinterprets the proposal or misrepresents some critical reality on the ground,” Vance wrote.

Initial Efforts and EU Reactions

Vance's initial attempts at negotiating a ceasefire agreement with Russia, while simultaneously seeking to renew relations with Moscow, were unsuccessful and left his camp feeling disappointed with their Russian interlocutors. European officials, in turn, were irritated by his initial remarks, in which he accused them of running from their voters, who Vance claimed held anti-immigration and conservative positions similar to those of Trump's own supporters.

However, the new ceasefire proposal mirrored his positions, and he has been one of the most assertive advocates for the agreement in the administration, even as the US has been criticized for accepting a ceasefire plan that largely resembles Vladimir Putin's maximalist terms.

In posts this weekend, Vance argued that a ceasefire agreement would have to establish a truce that honored Ukrainian independence, be acceptable to both sides, and stop the conflict from resuming.

“Peace won’t be made by failed diplomats or politicians residing in a fantasy land,” he added. “It might 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 primarily instructed his team with obtaining a agreement on the ceasefire accord prior to Thanksgiving this Thursday in the United States.

The Secretary of State's Reaction and Private Doubts

That was a notably more enthusiastic support of the proposal than that given by the secretary of state and security advisor, Marco Rubio, a more conventional hawk in the administration who has transitioned from a shaky stature inside the White House to more firm footing.

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

But, his first response to the deal was lukewarm:

“Ending a complex and violent conflict such as the one in Ukraine demands an thorough discussion of substantive and pragmatic ideas,” Rubio wrote recently. “Furthermore, securing a lasting peace will necessitate each party to consent to difficult but essential compromises. That is why we are and will persist to create a set of possible ideas for ending this conflict based on feedback from both sides of this war.”

In private, he was said to be much more doubtful of the plan. The GOP lawmaker Mike Rounds said last week at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had contacted legislators to explain that the agreement was just a initial proposal from the Russians and not an plan advocated by the administration.

“Rubio did make a phone call to us this afternoon and I believe he made it very clear to us that we are the receivers of a offer that was presented to one of our representatives,” stated Rounds. “It is not our recommendation, it is not our ceasefire proposal.”

Rubio moved quickly to fall in line. “The peace proposal was authored by the US,” he later wrote. “It is offered as a solid structure for continuing discussions. The proposal is derived from input from the Moscow. But, it is also informed by previous and ongoing input from Ukraine.”