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The US Army Secretary, Daniel Driscoll, was an unlikely envoy for the White House's newest initiative to end the conflict in Ukraine. His close connection with Vice President Vance has placed a key ally of the Euroskeptic VP at the center of President Trump's recent effort to settle the conflict.

Prior to his last week's trip to Kyiv, Driscoll was not known as a negotiator or statesman, and his initial efforts to sell the deal to officials in Europe were described as turbulent.

Driscoll's close ties with Vance, who he studied and shares a close friendship, signal the rising influence of the isolationist VP in talks to resolve the Ukraine war.

The VP's Role in Peace Efforts

This was Vance who stepped in during Volodymyr Zelenskyy rocky initial trip to the Trump White House in March and insisted he show Trump more respect. Now, Ukraine is once again resisting pressure from the US to accept a quick settlement that Ukrainian leaders have called a surrender.

Following a chaotic first year in power, foreign policy decisions in the White House are reportedly influenced by a small group of Trump's key aides, including chief of staff Susie Wiles, conservative advisor Stephen Miller, envoy Steve Witkoff, State Department head Marco Rubio, and finally Vance.

Vance has been a outspoken advocate of the recent plan, which was developed by Witkoff and Trump's relative Jared Kushner, together with the Kremlin envoy Kirill Dmitriev.

“All objection of the ceasefire plan the administration is working on either misunderstands the proposal or misrepresents some key reality on the ground,” the VP stated.

Early Efforts and European Responses

Vance's early efforts at hammering out a peace deal with Russia, while simultaneously attempting to renew ties with Moscow, were unsuccessful and left his team feeling disappointed with their Russian interlocutors. Leaders in Europe, in turn, were irritated by his early remarks, in which he charged them of running from their constituents, who Vance said held restrictionist and right-leaning views similar to those of Trump's own constituency.

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

In posts this weekend, Vance argued that a peace deal would have to produce a truce that respected Ukrainian sovereignty, be acceptable to both sides, and stop the war from resuming.

“Peace will not be made by failed negotiators or politicians living in a dream world,” he added. “An agreement could be made by smart people living in the real world.”

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

The Secretary of State's Response and Internal Doubts

That was a distinctly more enthusiastic endorsement of the proposal than that expressed by the secretary of state and national security adviser, Marco Rubio, a more traditional hardliner in the administration who has transitioned from a shaky position inside the administration to more stable standing.

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

However, his first response to the agreement was tepid:

“Ending a complicated and deadly conflict such as the one in Ukraine demands an thorough discussion of serious and pragmatic proposals,” Rubio wrote over the weekend. “And, achieving a durable ceasefire will necessitate each party to agree to challenging but necessary compromises. This is the reason we are and will persist to develop a list of possible ideas for ending this war drawing from feedback from each party of this war.”

In private, he was said to be much more skeptical of the plan. The GOP lawmaker Mike Rounds said recently at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had called lawmakers to explain that the agreement was just a preliminary proposal from the Russians and not an plan pushed by the administration.

“The Secretary did make a call to us this day and I believe he emphasized to us that we are the receivers of a proposal that was delivered to one of our representatives,” 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 stated. “It is presented as a solid framework for ongoing discussions. The proposal is derived from feedback from the Russian side. But, it is also informed by earlier and ongoing contributions from Ukraine.”