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America's Army Secretary, Daniel Driscoll, emerged as an unlikely diplomat for the Trump administration latest proposal to end the Russian invasion in Ukraine. Driscoll's strong connection with JD Vance has placed a close associate of the Euroskeptic vice-president at the center of Donald Trump latest effort to settle the war.

Before his last week's trip to Kyiv, Driscoll was not known as a mediator or diplomat, and his initial attempts to sell the agreement to European policymakers were described as turbulent.

His close ties with Vance, who he attended Yale and shares a close friendship, signal the resurgence of the non-interventionist VP in talks to end the Ukraine crisis.

Vance's Involvement in Peace Negotiations

It was Vance who stepped in during Ukraine's president's disastrous initial trip to the White House in March and demanded he show Trump more respect. Now, Ukraine is again pushing back against pressure from the US to agree to a swift settlement that local officials have called a capitulation.

Following a tumultuous initial year in office, foreign policy decisions in the White House are said to be shaped by a small group of Trump's key advisers, including top aide Susie Wiles, rightwing adviser Stephen Miller, diplomat Steve Witkoff, secretary of state Marco Rubio, and finally 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 Russian diplomat Kirill Dmitriev.

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

Initial Efforts and European Responses

Vance's initial attempts at negotiating a ceasefire agreement with Russia, while simultaneously seeking to renew relations with Moscow, were fruitless and left his camp feeling disappointed with their Russian counterparts. European officials, in turn, were angered by his initial speeches, in which he accused them of running from their constituents, who Vance claimed held anti-immigration and conservative positions close to those of Trump's own constituency.

However, the new ceasefire proposal mirrored his stances, and he has been one of the most assertive spokespeople for the agreement in the government, even as the US has been under fire for endorsing a peace framework that mostly resembles Vladimir Putin's maximalist demands.

In posts this weekend, Vance asserted that a ceasefire agreement would have to establish a ceasefire that honored Ukrainian sovereignty, be agreeable to both sides, and prevent the conflict from restarting.

“Peace won’t be made by failed negotiators or politicians residing in a fantasy land,” he added. “It could be made by smart people living in the real world.”

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

The Secretary of State's Response and Internal Doubts

That was a distinctly more full-throated endorsement of the plan than that expressed by the top diplomat and national security adviser, Marco Rubio, a more conventional hawk in the government who has gone from a uncertain position inside the administration to more firm footing.

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

However, his first reaction to the agreement was lukewarm:

“Ending a complex and deadly conflict such as the one in Ukraine requires an extensive discussion of substantive and realistic ideas,” Rubio wrote over the weekend. “And, achieving a lasting ceasefire will require each party to consent to challenging but essential concessions. This is the reason we are and will continue to create a set of potential ideas for ending this war drawing from feedback from each party of this war.”

In private, he was reportedly much more doubtful of the proposal. The GOP lawmaker Mike Rounds said recently at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had called lawmakers to clarify that the deal was merely a initial offer from the Russians and not an initiative pushed by the administration.

“The Secretary made a call to us this day and I think he made it very clear to us that we are the receivers of a offer that was delivered to one of our officials,” said Rounds. “It is not our suggestion, it is not our peace plan.”

Rubio acted swiftly to fall in line. “This ceasefire plan was authored by the US,” he later wrote. “The framework is presented as a solid structure for continuing discussions. It is based on feedback from the Russian side. However, it is also based on earlier and ongoing contributions from Ukraine.”