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America's Army Secretary, Daniel Driscoll, was an surprising diplomat for the White House's newest initiative to resolve the conflict in Ukraine. Driscoll's close relationship with Vice President Vance has placed a close associate of the Euroskeptic vice-president at the center of Donald Trump recent push to settle the war.

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

Driscoll's close ties with Vance, who he studied and shares a close friendship, indicate the rising influence of the isolationist vice-president in negotiations to end the Ukraine war.

The VP's Involvement in Ceasefire Negotiations

It was Vance who stepped in during Ukraine's president's disastrous first visit to the Trump White House in March and insisted he show Trump more respect. Now, Ukraine is again pushing back against pressure from the US to accept a quick settlement that Ukrainian leaders have described as a surrender.

Following a tumultuous initial year in power, foreign policy actions in the White House are said to be shaped by a small group of Trump's key advisers, such as top aide Susie Wiles, conservative advisor Stephen Miller, diplomat Steve Witkoff, State Department head Marco Rubio, and of course Vance.

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

“Every objection of the ceasefire plan the administration is working on either misinterprets the framework or misstates some key situation on the ground,” Vance wrote.

Initial Attempts and European Responses

Vance's early attempts at hammering out a peace deal with Russia, while simultaneously seeking to renew ties with Moscow, were unsuccessful and left his team feeling disappointed with their Russian counterparts. European officials, in turn, were angered by his initial speeches, in which he accused them of ignoring their voters, who Vance claimed held anti-immigration and conservative views similar to those of Trump's own constituency.

But, the recently published peace deal closely resembled his stances, and he has been one of the most forceful spokespeople for the deal in the administration, even as the US has been under fire for endorsing a peace framework that mostly echoes Vladimir Putin's maximalist demands.

In social media updates this past weekend, Vance asserted that a ceasefire agreement would have to produce a truce that respected Ukrainian sovereignty, be agreeable to each party, and stop the war from resuming.

“Peace will not be made by unsuccessful negotiators or politicians residing in a dream world,” he added. “It might be made by intelligent people operating in the real world.”

It was Vance who followed up on the presentation of the ceasefire proposal in a phone call with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had primarily tasked his staff with obtaining a signature on the ceasefire accord before Thanksgiving this week in the United States.

The Secretary of State's Reaction and Private Concerns

Vance's stance was a distinctly more full-throated support of the plan than that given by the top diplomat and national security adviser, Marco Rubio, a more conventional hardliner in the administration who has gone from a shaky stature inside the administration to more firm standing.

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

But, his first reaction to the deal was tepid:

“Stopping a complex and violent war such as the one in Ukraine requires an extensive exchange of serious and realistic proposals,” Rubio wrote over the weekend. “And, securing a lasting ceasefire will require both sides to agree to difficult but necessary concessions. This is the reason we are and will persist to create a list of possible solutions for resolving this conflict based on feedback from each party of this conflict.”

In private, 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 contacted legislators to explain that the agreement was just a preliminary proposal from the Russians and not an initiative advocated by the administration.

“The Secretary did make a call to us this afternoon and I think he emphasized to us that we are the recipients of a proposal that was delivered to one of our representatives,” stated Rounds. “It is not our recommendation, it is not our ceasefire proposal.”

Rubio acted swiftly to fall in line. “This ceasefire plan was authored by the US,” he subsequently stated. “It is offered as a strong framework for ongoing negotiations. The proposal is based on feedback from the Moscow. But, it is also informed by earlier and ongoing contributions from Ukraine.”