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The US Secretary of the Army, Dan Driscoll, was an unlikely envoy for the White House's latest proposal to end the conflict in Ukraine. His strong relationship with Vice President Vance has positioned a close associate of the Eurosceptic VP at the center of President Trump's latest effort to settle the war.

Before his recent trip to Kyiv, Driscoll was unrecognized as a mediator or statesman, and his initial efforts to sell the deal to European policymakers were described as chaotic.

His strong ties with Vance, who he studied and shares a personal bond, signal the rising influence of the isolationist vice-president in talks to resolve the Ukraine crisis.

The VP's Involvement in Peace Negotiations

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

After a chaotic first year in office, international actions in the White House are said to be influenced by a handful of Trump's key aides, including top aide Susie Wiles, rightwing advisor Stephen Miller, diplomat Steve Witkoff, secretary of state Marco Rubio, and finally Vance.

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

“All criticism of the peace framework the White House is working on either misinterprets the framework or misstates some key situation on the ground,” the VP wrote.

Initial Attempts and European Reactions

Vance's initial efforts at hammering out a ceasefire agreement with Russia, while simultaneously attempting to renew ties with Moscow, were fruitless and left his team feeling disappointed with their Russian interlocutors. European officials, in turn, were angered by his initial speeches, in which he charged them of running from their voters, who Vance said held restrictionist and right-leaning views similar to those of Trump's own constituency.

But, the recently published ceasefire proposal 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 criticized for endorsing a peace framework that mostly resembles Vladimir Putin's maximalist demands.

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

“A ceasefire won’t be made by unsuccessful negotiators or politicians living in a fantasy land,” he added. “An agreement might be made by smart people living in the real world.”

It was Vance who followed up on the presentation of the ceasefire proposal in a conversation with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had mainly instructed his staff with securing a agreement on the peace deal before Thanksgiving this week in the United States.

Rubio's Reaction and Internal Doubts

That was a notably more full-throated endorsement of the plan than that given by the top diplomat 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 stable standing.

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

However, his first reaction to the deal was lukewarm:

“Ending a complicated and violent war such as the one in Ukraine demands an extensive exchange of serious and realistic ideas,” Rubio wrote recently. “And, achieving a durable ceasefire will necessitate both sides to consent to challenging but necessary concessions. This is the reason we are and will persist to create a set of potential ideas for ending this conflict based on input from both sides of this war.”

Behind closed doors, he was said to be much more skeptical of the plan. The GOP lawmaker Mike Rounds said last week at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had contacted lawmakers to clarify that the deal was just a preliminary offer from the Russians and not an plan pushed by the administration.

“Rubio made a call to us this day and I believe he emphasized to us that we are the recipients of a proposal that was delivered to one of our representatives,” said Rounds. “The document is not our recommendation, it is not our peace plan.”

Rubio acted swiftly to align himself. “The peace proposal was authored by the US,” he later wrote. “It is presented as a strong framework for continuing discussions. The proposal is derived from input from the Moscow. But, it is also informed by previous and ongoing input from Ukraine.”