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The US Army Secretary, Dan Driscoll, was an unlikely envoy for the Trump administration latest initiative to resolve the conflict in Ukraine. Driscoll's close connection with JD Vance has placed a key ally of the Eurosceptic vice-president at the center of Donald Trump recent effort to conclude the war.

Prior to his last week's trip to Kyiv, Driscoll was unrecognized as a mediator or statesman, and his early attempts to sell the deal to European policymakers were described as chaotic.

His strong relationship with Vance, with whom he studied and shares a close friendship, indicate the rising influence of the isolationist VP in negotiations to resolve the Ukraine war.

Vance's Involvement in Ceasefire Efforts

This was Vance who intervened during Ukraine's president's disastrous first 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 accept a swift deal that local officials have described as a capitulation.

Following a tumultuous first year in office, foreign policy actions in the White House are said to be influenced by a handful of Trump's key advisers, including chief of staff Susie Wiles, conservative advisor Stephen Miller, envoy Steve Witkoff, State Department head Marco Rubio, and finally Vance.

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

“All objection of the peace framework the White House is working on either misinterprets the framework or misrepresents some key situation on the ground,” Vance wrote.

Early Attempts and European Responses

Vance's early efforts at hammering out a peace deal with Russia, while simultaneously attempting to restore ties with Moscow, were fruitless and left his team feeling disappointed with their Russian interlocutors. European officials, meanwhile, were angered by his initial speeches, in which he accused them of ignoring their voters, who Vance said held restrictionist and conservative positions similar to those of Trump's own constituency.

However, the new ceasefire proposal mirrored his positions, and he has been one of the most forceful spokespeople for the deal in the administration, even as the US has been criticized for accepting a peace framework that mostly echoes Vladimir Putin's maximalist demands.

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

“Peace will not be made by unsuccessful negotiators or officials residing in a dream world,” he continued. “It could be made by smart people operating in the real world.”

It was Vance who continued on the introduction of the peace plan in a phone call with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had mainly tasked his staff with securing a agreement on the ceasefire accord prior to Thanksgiving this week in the United States.

Rubio's Response and Internal Concerns

That was a notably more full-throated endorsement of the plan than that given by the top diplomat and national security adviser, Marco Rubio, a more conventional hardliner in the government who has transitioned from a uncertain position inside the administration to more firm standing.

Rubio was a member of a US delegation that went to Geneva this past weekend to confer 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 lukewarm:

“Ending a complicated and deadly war such as the one in Ukraine demands an extensive discussion of serious and pragmatic proposals,” Rubio stated over the weekend. “Furthermore, securing a lasting ceasefire will require both sides to agree to difficult but essential concessions. This is the reason we are and will persist to develop a list of potential ideas for ending this war based on feedback from each party of this conflict.”

Behind closed doors, he was reportedly much more doubtful of the plan. The GOP lawmaker Mike Rounds stated last week at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had called legislators to explain that the agreement was just a initial proposal from the Russians and not an plan pushed by the administration.

“Rubio made a call to us this afternoon and I think he emphasized to us that we are the receivers of a proposal that was presented to one of our representatives,” stated Rounds. “The document is not our suggestion, it is not our ceasefire proposal.”

Rubio acted swiftly to align himself. “The peace proposal was written by the US,” he later wrote. “The framework is presented as a solid framework for continuing negotiations. It is based on input from the Moscow. But, it is additionally based on earlier and ongoing input from Ukraine.”