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The US Army Secretary, Daniel Driscoll, was an unlikely envoy for the Trump administration latest proposal to resolve the Russian invasion in Ukraine. His strong connection with Vice President Vance has placed a key ally of the Eurosceptic vice-president at the center of President Trump's latest push to settle the war.

Before his recent trip to Kyiv, Driscoll was not known as a negotiator or statesman, and his initial efforts to promote the deal to officials in Europe were described as chaotic.

His close relationship with Vance, with whom he studied and maintains a close friendship, signal the resurgence of the isolationist vice-president in negotiations to resolve the Ukraine war.

The VP's Involvement in Ceasefire Efforts

This was Vance who intervened during Ukraine's president's disastrous initial visit to the White House in March and demanded he show Trump more courtesy. Currently, Ukraine is again pushing back against pressure from the US to accept a quick settlement that local officials have called a capitulation.

Following a chaotic first year in power, international actions in the White House are said to be shaped by a small group of Trump's key aides, including top aide Susie Wiles, conservative advisor Stephen Miller, diplomat Steve Witkoff, State Department head Marco Rubio, and finally Vance.

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

“All objection of the ceasefire plan the administration is working on either misinterprets the framework or misstates some critical reality on the ground,” Vance wrote.

Initial Efforts and European Reactions

Vance's early attempts at negotiating a peace deal with Russia, while also seeking to renew relations with Moscow, were fruitless and left his team feeling frustrated with their Russian counterparts. European officials, meanwhile, were angered by his initial speeches, in which he charged them of running from their voters, who Vance claimed held anti-immigration and conservative positions close to those of Trump's own supporters.

But, the recently published peace deal mirrored his stances, and he has been one of the most assertive advocates for the agreement in the administration, even as the US has been under fire for accepting a peace framework that largely resembles Vladimir Putin's maximalist terms.

In social media updates this weekend, Vance argued that a ceasefire agreement would have to produce a truce that respected Ukrainian independence, be acceptable to each party, and stop the war from restarting.

“Peace won’t be made by unsuccessful negotiators or officials residing in a dream world,” he added. “An agreement could be made by smart people operating in the actual situation.”

Additionally, it was Vance who continued on the introduction of the peace plan in a conversation with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had mainly tasked his team with obtaining a signature on the ceasefire accord before Thanksgiving this week in the United States.

The Secretary of State's Response and Private Concerns

That was a distinctly more full-throated support of the proposal than that given by the secretary of state and security advisor, Marco Rubio, a more conventional hawk in the administration who has transitioned from a uncertain position inside the White House to more firm footing.

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

But, his first reaction to the agreement was lukewarm:

“Ending a complicated and deadly war such as the one in Ukraine requires an extensive discussion of substantive and pragmatic ideas,” Rubio wrote recently. “And, achieving a lasting ceasefire will require each party to consent to challenging but essential compromises. That is why we are and will continue to develop a set of potential solutions for ending this war based on input from both sides of this conflict.”

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

“The Secretary made a phone call to us this day and I think he emphasized to us that we are the recipients of a offer that was delivered to one of our representatives,” said Rounds. “The document 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 later stated. “The framework is offered as a strong structure for continuing negotiations. It is based on feedback from the Moscow. However, it is also based on previous and ongoing contributions from Ukraine.”