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The US Army Secretary, Daniel Driscoll, emerged as an unlikely envoy for the Trump administration latest initiative to end the conflict in Ukraine. Driscoll's strong connection with JD Vance has positioned a key ally of the Euroskeptic vice-president at the center of Donald Trump recent push to conclude the conflict.

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

Driscoll's strong ties with Vance, who he studied and maintains a close friendship, indicate the rising influence of the non-interventionist vice-president in talks to resolve the Ukraine war.

The VP's Role in Peace Efforts

It was Vance who intervened during Ukraine's president's rocky initial visit to the White House in March and demanded he show Trump more respect. Currently, Ukraine is again pushing back against pressure from the US to agree to a quick settlement that Ukrainian leaders have called a capitulation.

Following a tumultuous initial year in power, international actions in the White House are said to be shaped by a small group of Trump's key advisers, including chief of staff Susie Wiles, rightwing advisor Stephen Miller, diplomat Steve Witkoff, secretary of state Marco Rubio, and of course Vance.

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

“Every objection of the peace framework the administration is developing either misunderstands the proposal or misstates some critical situation on the ground,” Vance stated.

Early Efforts and European Responses

Vance's early attempts at negotiating a peace deal with Russia, while simultaneously seeking to restore ties with Moscow, were fruitless and left his camp feeling frustrated with their Russian interlocutors. Leaders in Europe, meanwhile, were irritated by his early remarks, in which he accused them of ignoring their voters, who Vance said held restrictionist and right-leaning positions close to those of Trump's own constituency.

But, the new peace deal mirrored his positions, and he has been one of the most forceful spokespeople 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 maximalist terms.

In posts this past weekend, Vance asserted that a peace deal would have to produce a truce that honored Ukrainian independence, be agreeable to each party, and stop the conflict from restarting.

“Peace won’t be made by unsuccessful negotiators or officials living in a dream world,” he added. “An agreement might be made by smart people living in the real world.”

It was Vance who followed up on the introduction of the peace plan in a phone call with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had mainly tasked his team with obtaining a agreement on the peace deal prior to Thanksgiving this Thursday in the United States.

Rubio's Reaction and Private Concerns

Vance's stance was a notably more enthusiastic endorsement of the plan than that expressed by the secretary of state and national security adviser, Marco Rubio, a more conventional hardliner in the government who has transitioned from a uncertain position inside the administration to more firm standing.

Rubio was a member of a US team that went to Geneva this past weekend to confer with Ukrainian leaders to help moderate the initial 28-point ceasefire proposal in order to make it more acceptable to authorities in Kyiv.

But, his initial response to the agreement was lukewarm:

“Ending a complex and deadly war such as the one in Ukraine demands an thorough exchange of substantive and pragmatic ideas,” Rubio stated over the weekend. “And, achieving a durable peace will necessitate both sides to consent to difficult but necessary concessions. That is why we are and will persist to develop a set of potential solutions for resolving this conflict based on input from both sides of this conflict.”

Behind closed doors, he was said to be much more doubtful of the plan. The GOP lawmaker Mike Rounds said last week at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had called lawmakers to clarify that the agreement was merely a preliminary offer from the Russians and not an initiative pushed by the White House.

“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 presented to one of our representatives,” said Rounds. “It is not our suggestion, it is not our ceasefire proposal.”

Rubio acted swiftly to align himself. “This ceasefire plan was written by the US,” he later stated. “It is presented as a strong framework for ongoing discussions. It is based on input from the Russian side. But, it is additionally based on earlier and ongoing input from Ukraine.”