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The US Army Secretary, Dan Driscoll, was an surprising diplomat for the White House's latest proposal to resolve the Russian invasion in Ukraine. His strong relationship with JD Vance has positioned a key ally of the Euroskeptic VP at the center of President Trump's recent push to settle the war.

Prior to his recent visit to Kyiv, Driscoll was unrecognized as a negotiator or statesman, and his early attempts to sell the deal to officials in Europe were labeled turbulent.

Driscoll's close ties with Vance, who he attended Yale and maintains a personal bond, indicate the rising influence of the non-interventionist VP in negotiations to resolve the Ukraine war.

The VP's Involvement in Ceasefire Efforts

This was Vance who stepped in during Ukraine's president's disastrous initial trip to the Trump White House in March and insisted he show Trump more courtesy. Now, Ukraine is once again resisting demands from the US to agree to a swift deal that local officials have described as a capitulation.

After a chaotic initial year in office, international actions in the White House are said to be shaped by a small group of Trump's key aides, including chief of staff Susie Wiles, rightwing advisor Stephen Miller, diplomat Steve Witkoff, State Department head Marco Rubio, and of course Vance.

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

“Every objection of the ceasefire plan the White House is working on either misunderstands the proposal or misrepresents some critical reality on the ground,” Vance wrote.

Early Efforts and EU Reactions

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

However, the new peace deal mirrored his positions, and he has been one of the most assertive advocates for the deal in the administration, even as the US has been under fire for endorsing a ceasefire plan that mostly resembles Vladimir Putin's extreme demands.

In social media updates this past weekend, Vance asserted that a peace deal would have to produce a ceasefire that respected Ukrainian sovereignty, be acceptable to both sides, and prevent the conflict from resuming.

“A ceasefire won’t be made by unsuccessful negotiators or officials residing in a dream world,” he added. “An agreement could be made by intelligent people operating in the real world.”

Additionally, it was Vance who followed up on the presentation of the ceasefire proposal in a phone call with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had mainly instructed his team with securing a signature on the peace deal before Thanksgiving this week in the United States.

Rubio's Reaction and Internal Doubts

Vance's stance was a distinctly more full-throated endorsement of the proposal than that given by the secretary of state and security advisor, Marco Rubio, a more conventional hardliner in the administration who has transitioned from a shaky stature inside the White House to more firm standing.

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

However, his first response to the agreement was tepid:

“Stopping a complicated and deadly war such as the one in Ukraine requires an extensive discussion of serious and pragmatic ideas,” Rubio stated recently. “And, securing a durable ceasefire will require each party to agree to challenging but necessary compromises. That is why we are and will continue to create a set of potential solutions for ending this war based on input from each party of this war.”

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

“Rubio made a call to us this day and I believe he emphasized 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 peace plan.”

Rubio moved quickly to fall in line. “The peace proposal was authored by the US,” he subsequently wrote. “The framework is offered as a strong framework for continuing negotiations. It is based on feedback from the Russian side. However, it is additionally informed by earlier and current input from Ukraine.”