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The US Secretary of the Army, Dan Driscoll, emerged as an unlikely diplomat for the Trump administration latest proposal to end the conflict in Ukraine. His strong connection with JD Vance has positioned a close associate of the Eurosceptic VP at the center of President Trump's latest effort to settle the war.

Prior to his last week's visit to Kyiv, Driscoll was not known as a negotiator or statesman, and his early efforts to sell the deal to officials in Europe were described as turbulent.

Driscoll's strong relationship with Vance, with whom he studied and maintains a personal bond, signal the resurgence of the isolationist vice-president in talks to end the Ukraine war.

Vance's Involvement in Peace Efforts

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. Currently, Ukraine is again resisting demands from the US to accept a quick settlement that local officials have called a capitulation.

Following a tumultuous initial year in office, foreign policy decisions in the White House are reportedly shaped by a handful of Trump's top aides, such as top aide Susie Wiles, rightwing advisor Stephen Miller, envoy Steve Witkoff, secretary of state Marco Rubio, and of course Vance.

Vance has been a vocal supporter of the latest proposal, which was developed by Witkoff and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, together with the Russian diplomat Kirill Dmitriev.

“Every criticism of the ceasefire plan the White House is developing either misinterprets the proposal or misstates some critical situation on the ground,” the VP wrote.

Early Efforts and EU Reactions

Vance's early efforts at negotiating a ceasefire agreement with Russia, while simultaneously attempting to restore ties with Moscow, were unsuccessful and left his team feeling frustrated with their Russian counterparts. European officials, in turn, were angered by his initial remarks, in which he accused them of ignoring their voters, who Vance said held restrictionist and right-leaning views similar to those of Trump's own supporters.

However, the recently published ceasefire proposal closely resembled his stances, and he has been one of the most forceful advocates for the agreement in the administration, even as the US has been under fire for endorsing a ceasefire plan that largely resembles Vladimir Putin's extreme terms.

In posts this past weekend, Vance asserted that a peace deal would have to establish a ceasefire that respected Ukrainian sovereignty, be acceptable to each party, and prevent the war from restarting.

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

It was Vance who continued on the introduction of the ceasefire proposal in a phone call with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had mainly tasked his team with securing a signature on the ceasefire accord before Thanksgiving this week in the United States.

Rubio'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 stature inside the White House to more stable standing.

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

However, his first response to the agreement was tepid:

“Stopping a complex and violent conflict such as the one in Ukraine demands an extensive discussion of substantive and pragmatic ideas,” Rubio stated recently. “And, securing a durable ceasefire will require both sides to agree to difficult but essential compromises. That is why we are and will continue to develop a list of possible ideas for resolving this conflict based on feedback from both sides 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 legislators to clarify that the deal was merely a initial offer from the Russians and not an plan pushed by the administration.

“Rubio made a call to us this afternoon and I think he made it very clear to us that we are the receivers of a proposal that was delivered to one of our officials,” said Rounds. “It is not our suggestion, it is not our ceasefire proposal.”

Rubio moved quickly to fall in line. “The peace proposal was written by the US,” he subsequently wrote. “The framework is presented as a strong framework for ongoing discussions. The proposal is based on feedback from the Russian side. But, it is additionally informed by earlier and ongoing input from Ukraine.”