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The US Army Secretary, Daniel Driscoll, emerged as an unlikely diplomat for the White House's latest initiative to end the conflict in Ukraine. His strong connection with Vice President Vance has positioned a close associate of the Eurosceptic vice-president at the center of President Trump's latest push to conclude the conflict.

Prior to his last week's trip to Kyiv, Driscoll was unrecognized as a negotiator or diplomat, and his early efforts to promote the agreement to officials in Europe were labeled chaotic.

His strong relationship with Vance, with whom he attended Yale and shares a personal bond, signal the rising influence of the non-interventionist VP in talks to end the Ukraine crisis.

Vance's Role in Ceasefire Negotiations

This was Vance who stepped in during Volodymyr Zelenskyy rocky initial trip to the White House in March and insisted he show Trump more courtesy. Currently, Ukraine is again pushing back against pressure from the US to accept a swift deal that local officials have described as a capitulation.

After a chaotic initial year in power, international actions in the White House are said to be shaped by a handful of Trump's top aides, including top aide Susie Wiles, conservative advisor Stephen Miller, envoy Steve Witkoff, secretary of state Marco Rubio, and of course Vance.

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

“Every criticism of the peace framework the administration is developing either misinterprets the framework or misstates some key reality on the ground,” Vance wrote.

Initial Attempts and EU Responses

Vance's early efforts at negotiating a ceasefire agreement with Russia, while simultaneously seeking to restore relations with Moscow, were fruitless and left his team feeling disappointed with their Russian interlocutors. European officials, in turn, were angered by his early remarks, in which he charged them of ignoring their voters, who Vance said held restrictionist and right-leaning views close to those of Trump's own supporters.

But, the new ceasefire proposal closely resembled his stances, and he has been one of the most assertive advocates for the deal in the government, even as the US has been criticized for endorsing a ceasefire plan that mostly resembles Vladimir Putin's maximalist demands.

In posts this past weekend, Vance argued that a peace deal would have to establish a truce that honored Ukrainian independence, be acceptable to both sides, and prevent the war from resuming.

“A ceasefire won’t be made by unsuccessful diplomats or officials residing in a dream world,” he continued. “It could be made by intelligent people operating in the real world.”

Additionally, it was Vance who followed up on the introduction of the ceasefire proposal in a conversation with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had primarily tasked his staff with securing a agreement on the peace deal before Thanksgiving this Thursday in the United States.

The Secretary of State's Response and Private Doubts

That was a notably more full-throated endorsement of the proposal than that expressed by the top diplomat and national security adviser, Marco Rubio, a more traditional hawk in the government who has transitioned from a uncertain position inside the administration to more stable standing.

Rubio was part of a US delegation that went to Geneva this weekend to confer with Ukrainian officials to help moderate the original 28-point ceasefire proposal in order to make it more acceptable to leaders in Kyiv.

However, his first reaction to the agreement was lukewarm:

“Stopping a complicated and deadly conflict such as the one in Ukraine requires an thorough discussion of serious and pragmatic ideas,” Rubio wrote over the weekend. “Furthermore, achieving a durable ceasefire will necessitate both sides to agree to difficult but essential concessions. This is the reason we are and will persist to develop a list of possible solutions for ending this war based on input from each party of this conflict.”

Behind closed doors, he was reportedly much more doubtful of the proposal. The GOP lawmaker Mike Rounds said last week at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had called lawmakers to explain that the deal was merely a preliminary 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 receivers of a offer 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 subsequently wrote. “The framework is offered as a solid framework for ongoing negotiations. It is derived from input from the Moscow. But, it is also based on earlier and ongoing contributions from Ukraine.”