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The US Secretary of the Army, Dan Driscoll, emerged as an surprising diplomat for the Trump administration newest proposal to end the conflict in Ukraine. His close connection with JD Vance has placed a close associate of the Eurosceptic VP at the forefront of Donald Trump latest effort to settle the war.

Before his last week's visit to Kyiv, Driscoll was not known as a mediator or diplomat, and his early attempts to sell the deal to officials in Europe were described as chaotic.

Driscoll's close relationship with Vance, who he attended Yale and shares a personal bond, signal the resurgence of the isolationist VP in negotiations to resolve the Ukraine war.

The VP's Role in Peace Negotiations

It was Vance who stepped in during Volodymyr Zelenskyy disastrous initial visit to the Trump White House in March and demanded he show Trump more respect. Now, Ukraine is once again pushing back against pressure from the US to accept a quick settlement that Ukrainian leaders have called a surrender.

Following a tumultuous first year in power, foreign policy actions in the White House are reportedly shaped by a handful of Trump's key aides, including top aide Susie Wiles, rightwing advisor Stephen Miller, diplomat Steve Witkoff, secretary of state Marco Rubio, and of course Vance.

Vance has been a vocal advocate of the recent proposal, which was developed by Witkoff and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, alongside the Kremlin envoy Kirill Dmitriev.

“All criticism of the peace framework the administration is developing either misinterprets the proposal or misrepresents some key reality on the ground,” Vance stated.

Early Attempts and European Reactions

Vance's early 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. Leaders in Europe, in turn, were irritated by his early speeches, in which he charged them of running from their voters, who Vance claimed held anti-immigration and right-leaning views similar to those of Trump's own supporters.

However, the new peace deal mirrored his stances, and he has been one of the most forceful spokespeople for the agreement in the government, even as the US has been criticized for accepting a ceasefire plan that mostly echoes Vladimir Putin's maximalist terms.

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

“A ceasefire won’t be made by unsuccessful diplomats or politicians residing in a fantasy land,” he continued. “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 conversation with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had mainly instructed his team with securing a signature on the peace deal prior to Thanksgiving this Thursday in the United States.

Rubio's Reaction and Private Doubts

Vance's stance was a notably more enthusiastic endorsement of the plan than that expressed by the top diplomat and national security adviser, Marco Rubio, a more conventional hardliner in the administration who has transitioned from a uncertain position inside the White House to more stable footing.

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

However, his initial reaction to the agreement was lukewarm:

“Ending a complicated and violent conflict such as the one in Ukraine requires an thorough discussion of substantive and pragmatic ideas,” Rubio wrote recently. “And, securing a durable peace will necessitate both sides to consent to difficult but necessary concessions. That is why we are and will persist to create a set of potential ideas for ending this conflict based on feedback from both sides of this conflict.”

In private, he was said to be much more doubtful of the plan. The Republican senator Mike Rounds said recently at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had contacted lawmakers to explain that the deal was merely a preliminary proposal from the Russians and not an initiative advocated by the White House.

“The Secretary did make 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 delivered to one of our officials,” stated Rounds. “The document is not our recommendation, it is not our peace plan.”

Rubio moved quickly to align himself. “This ceasefire plan was authored by the US,” he subsequently stated. “The framework is offered as a solid framework for continuing discussions. It is based on feedback from the Moscow. However, it is also informed by previous and current contributions from Ukraine.”