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America's Secretary of the Army, Daniel Driscoll, was an unlikely diplomat for the Trump administration newest proposal to end the conflict in Ukraine. His close connection with Vice President Vance has positioned a key ally of the Euroskeptic vice-president at the center of Donald Trump latest effort to settle the conflict.

Prior to his last week's visit to Kyiv, Driscoll was not known as a mediator or statesman, and his early attempts to promote the agreement to officials in Europe were labeled turbulent.

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

The VP's Role in Peace Efforts

This was Vance who intervened during Volodymyr Zelenskyy disastrous initial visit to the White House in March and demanded he show Trump more respect. Now, Ukraine is again resisting demands from the US to agree to a swift settlement that Ukrainian leaders have called a surrender.

Following a tumultuous first year in power, foreign policy actions in the White House are reportedly shaped by a handful of Trump's key aides, such as top aide Susie Wiles, conservative adviser Stephen Miller, envoy Steve Witkoff, State Department head Marco Rubio, and finally 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.

“All criticism of the ceasefire plan the White House is working on either misinterprets the proposal or misstates some critical reality on the ground,” Vance stated.

Early Attempts and EU Reactions

Vance's initial attempts at hammering out a ceasefire agreement with Russia, while also seeking to renew relations with Moscow, were unsuccessful and left his team feeling disappointed with their Russian counterparts. Leaders in Europe, meanwhile, were irritated by his initial speeches, in which he charged them of ignoring their constituents, who Vance claimed held anti-immigration and conservative positions close to those of Trump's own supporters.

However, the new peace deal closely resembled his stances, 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 mostly echoes Vladimir Putin's maximalist demands.

In social media updates this past weekend, Vance argued that a ceasefire agreement would have to establish a truce that honored Ukrainian independence, be acceptable to both sides, and stop the war from resuming.

“A ceasefire will not be made by failed negotiators or politicians living in a fantasy land,” he continued. “It might be made by smart people operating 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 signature on the ceasefire accord before Thanksgiving this week in the United States.

The Secretary of State's Reaction and Internal Doubts

Vance's stance was a distinctly more enthusiastic support of the plan than that expressed by the secretary of state and national security adviser, Marco Rubio, a more traditional hawk in the government who has gone from a uncertain position inside the administration to more stable standing.

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

However, his initial response to the agreement was tepid:

“Stopping a complex and deadly conflict such as the one in Ukraine demands an thorough exchange of serious and pragmatic ideas,” Rubio stated recently. “And, securing a lasting ceasefire will necessitate each party to consent to difficult but necessary concessions. That is why we are and will persist to develop a set of possible ideas for resolving this war drawing from input from both sides of this conflict.”

In private, he was said to be much more skeptical of the proposal. The Republican senator Mike Rounds said recently at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had called legislators to explain that the deal was merely a preliminary offer from the Russians and not an initiative advocated by the administration.

“Rubio did make a phone 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 presented to one of our representatives,” said Rounds. “It is not our recommendation, it is not our peace plan.”

Rubio moved quickly to align himself. “This ceasefire plan was written by the US,” he subsequently wrote. “It is presented as a strong structure for continuing discussions. It is based on input from the Moscow. But, it is also based on previous and current contributions from Ukraine.”