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America's Secretary of the Army, Daniel Driscoll, emerged as 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 close associate of the Eurosceptic VP at the forefront of President Trump's recent push to conclude the conflict.

Before his last week's visit to Kyiv, Driscoll was unrecognized as a mediator or statesman, and his initial efforts to sell the agreement to officials in Europe were described as chaotic.

His strong relationship with Vance, who he studied and shares a personal bond, indicate the rising influence of the non-interventionist vice-president in talks to end the Ukraine war.

Vance's Involvement in Ceasefire Efforts

It was Vance who intervened during Ukraine's president's disastrous first visit to the White House in March and demanded he show Trump more respect. Currently, Ukraine is once again pushing back against pressure from the US to agree to a swift settlement that Ukrainian leaders have described as a surrender.

After a tumultuous first year in office, international decisions in the White House are said to be influenced by a small group of Trump's top 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 supporter of the recent plan, which was developed by Witkoff and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, alongside the Kremlin envoy Kirill Dmitriev.

“Every criticism of the peace framework the White House is developing either misunderstands the proposal or misrepresents some critical situation on the ground,” Vance wrote.

Initial Attempts and EU Responses

Vance's initial efforts at negotiating a ceasefire agreement with Russia, while also attempting to restore relations with Moscow, were unsuccessful and left his team feeling disappointed with their Russian counterparts. European officials, in turn, were angered by his early speeches, in which he charged them of ignoring their voters, who Vance claimed held anti-immigration and conservative positions close to those of Trump's own supporters.

However, the new ceasefire proposal mirrored his stances, and he has been one of the most assertive advocates for the agreement in the government, even as the US has been under fire for accepting a peace framework that largely resembles Vladimir Putin's extreme terms.

In posts this past weekend, Vance argued that a peace deal would have to establish a ceasefire that respected Ukrainian independence, be acceptable to each party, and prevent the conflict from resuming.

“A ceasefire won’t be made by failed negotiators or politicians living in a dream world,” he continued. “An agreement could be made by intelligent people living in the actual situation.”

Additionally, it was Vance who followed up on the introduction of the ceasefire proposal in a phone call with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had mainly instructed his staff with obtaining a agreement on the ceasefire accord prior to Thanksgiving this week in the United States.

The Secretary of State's Reaction and Internal Doubts

That was a notably more enthusiastic endorsement of the plan than that given by the secretary of state and security advisor, Marco Rubio, a more traditional hawk in the administration who has transitioned from a uncertain stature inside the White House to more stable footing.

Rubio was a member of a US delegation that traveled to Geneva this weekend to confer with Ukrainian officials to help moderate the original 28-point peace plan in order to make it more palatable to authorities in Kyiv.

But, his first reaction to the agreement was tepid:

“Stopping a complicated and violent conflict such as the one in Ukraine demands an extensive exchange of serious and pragmatic proposals,” Rubio stated recently. “Furthermore, achieving a durable ceasefire will require each party to consent to difficult but necessary compromises. This is the reason we are and will persist to create a set of possible solutions for resolving this war drawing from input from both sides of this war.”

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

“Rubio made a phone call to us this afternoon and I think he made it very clear to us that we are the receivers of a proposal that was delivered to one of our officials,” said Rounds. “It is not our suggestion, it is not our ceasefire proposal.”

Rubio acted swiftly to align himself. “The peace proposal was written by the US,” he subsequently stated. “It is presented as a solid structure for ongoing negotiations. It is based on input from the Russian side. However, it is also informed by earlier and ongoing contributions from Ukraine.”