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The US Secretary of the Army, Daniel Driscoll, was an unlikely envoy for the White House's newest initiative to end the Russian invasion in Ukraine. Driscoll's strong connection with Vice President Vance has positioned a key ally of the Eurosceptic VP at the center of Donald Trump recent effort to conclude the conflict.

Prior to his recent visit to Kyiv, Driscoll was not known as a negotiator or statesman, and his initial efforts to sell the agreement to European policymakers were described as turbulent.

Driscoll's strong ties with Vance, with whom he attended Yale and maintains a personal bond, indicate the resurgence of the non-interventionist vice-president in talks to end the Ukraine crisis.

Vance's Role in Ceasefire Negotiations

It was Vance who stepped in during Volodymyr Zelenskyy rocky first visit to the Trump White House in March and demanded he show Trump more respect. Now, Ukraine is again pushing back against pressure from the US to agree to a swift settlement that local officials have described as a surrender.

Following a tumultuous first year in power, international decisions in the White House are reportedly influenced by a small group of Trump's top advisers, including top aide Susie Wiles, conservative advisor Stephen Miller, envoy Steve Witkoff, secretary of state Marco Rubio, and finally Vance.

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

“All criticism of the ceasefire plan the administration is developing either misinterprets the proposal or misstates some key reality on the ground,” the VP wrote.

Initial Efforts and European Responses

Vance's early attempts at hammering out a peace deal with Russia, while simultaneously seeking to restore relations with Moscow, were unsuccessful and left his camp feeling frustrated with their Russian interlocutors. Leaders in Europe, meanwhile, were irritated by his early remarks, in which he charged them of ignoring their voters, who Vance claimed held restrictionist and right-leaning views similar to those of Trump's own constituency.

However, the new ceasefire proposal closely resembled his positions, and he has been one of the most assertive advocates for the agreement in the government, even as the US has been under fire for endorsing a ceasefire plan that largely resembles Vladimir Putin's extreme demands.

In posts this past weekend, Vance argued that a ceasefire agreement would have to produce a truce that respected Ukrainian sovereignty, be acceptable to each party, and stop the conflict from restarting.

“Peace won’t be made by failed negotiators or politicians living in a fantasy land,” he added. “An agreement might be made by intelligent people operating in the actual situation.”

It was Vance who followed up on the introduction of the peace plan in a phone call with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had primarily tasked his staff with obtaining a signature on the peace deal prior to Thanksgiving this week in the United States.

Rubio's Reaction and Private Doubts

That was a distinctly more full-throated endorsement of the plan than that expressed by the top diplomat and security advisor, Marco Rubio, a more traditional hardliner in the administration who has gone from a uncertain stature inside the White House to more stable footing.

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

However, his initial reaction to the deal was tepid:

“Ending a complicated and deadly war such as the one in Ukraine demands an thorough exchange of serious and realistic proposals,” Rubio stated recently. “And, achieving a lasting ceasefire will necessitate both sides to agree to difficult but essential compromises. This is the reason we are and will persist to create a set of potential ideas for resolving this conflict based on feedback from both sides of this war.”

Behind closed doors, he was said to be much more skeptical of the plan. The Republican senator Mike Rounds said last week at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had called legislators to clarify that the agreement was merely a initial offer from the Russians and not an plan pushed by the White House.

“Rubio made a 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 delivered to one of our officials,” stated Rounds. “It is not our recommendation, it is not our ceasefire proposal.”

Rubio acted swiftly to align himself. “The peace proposal was written by the US,” he subsequently stated. “The framework is offered as a solid structure for continuing negotiations. The proposal is derived from input from the Russian side. But, it is also based on earlier and current input from Ukraine.”