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The US Army Secretary, Dan Driscoll, emerged as an unlikely envoy for the White House's latest initiative to resolve the Russian invasion in Ukraine. Driscoll's strong relationship with JD Vance has positioned a close associate of the Euroskeptic vice-president at the center of Donald Trump recent effort to settle the conflict.

Before his recent visit to Kyiv, Driscoll was unrecognized as a negotiator or statesman, and his early efforts to promote the agreement to European policymakers were labeled turbulent.

His strong relationship with Vance, who he studied and maintains a personal bond, signal the resurgence of the non-interventionist vice-president in talks to end the Ukraine war.

Vance's Involvement in Ceasefire Negotiations

This was Vance who intervened during Volodymyr Zelenskyy rocky initial trip to the White House in March and demanded he show Trump more respect. Now, Ukraine is once again resisting demands from the US to agree to a swift deal that local officials have described as a surrender.

After a chaotic first year in office, foreign policy actions in the White House are said to be shaped by a small group of Trump's top aides, including chief of staff Susie Wiles, conservative advisor Stephen Miller, diplomat Steve Witkoff, secretary of state Marco Rubio, and finally Vance.

Vance has been a vocal supporter of the latest proposal, which was developed by Witkoff and Trump's relative Jared Kushner, alongside the Russian diplomat Kirill Dmitriev.

“Every criticism of the ceasefire plan the administration is working on either misinterprets the proposal or misrepresents some critical reality on the ground,” the VP wrote.

Early Attempts and EU Reactions

Vance's early attempts at negotiating a ceasefire agreement with Russia, while simultaneously seeking to renew ties with Moscow, were unsuccessful and left his camp feeling disappointed with their Russian interlocutors. European officials, meanwhile, were angered by his early remarks, in which he charged them of ignoring their voters, who Vance claimed held restrictionist and conservative positions similar to those of Trump's own constituency.

However, the recently published ceasefire proposal closely resembled his stances, and he has been one of the most forceful advocates for the deal in the administration, even as the US has been criticized for endorsing a peace framework that largely echoes Vladimir Putin's maximalist terms.

In social media updates this weekend, Vance argued that a peace deal would have to establish a ceasefire that respected Ukrainian independence, be agreeable to each party, and prevent the conflict from restarting.

“A ceasefire will not be made by failed diplomats or officials residing in a dream world,” he continued. “An agreement might be made by intelligent people operating in the actual situation.”

It was Vance who followed up on the presentation of the peace plan in a phone call with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had mainly instructed his team with obtaining a signature on the ceasefire accord before Thanksgiving this Thursday in the United States.

Rubio's Response and Private Doubts

That was a distinctly more enthusiastic endorsement of the plan than that given by the top diplomat and security advisor, Marco Rubio, a more conventional hawk in the administration who has gone from a uncertain position inside the administration to more stable footing.

Rubio was a member 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 palatable to leaders in Kyiv.

But, his first reaction to the agreement was tepid:

“Ending a complex and violent war such as the one in Ukraine demands an extensive exchange of substantive and realistic proposals,” Rubio stated recently. “Furthermore, achieving a durable ceasefire will require both sides to agree to difficult but essential compromises. That is why we are and will persist to develop a set of potential ideas for ending this conflict drawing from feedback from both sides of this conflict.”

In private, he was said to be much more doubtful of the plan. The GOP lawmaker Mike Rounds said recently at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had contacted legislators 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 made it very clear to us that we are the receivers of a offer that was delivered to one of our officials,” stated Rounds. “It is not our recommendation, it is not our ceasefire proposal.”

Rubio acted swiftly to fall in line. “The peace proposal was authored by the US,” he later wrote. “It is presented as a solid structure for continuing negotiations. The proposal is derived from input from the Russian side. However, it is additionally based on previous and ongoing input from Ukraine.”