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The US Army Secretary, Dan Driscoll, was an unlikely envoy for the White House's latest proposal to resolve the Russian invasion in Ukraine. His close relationship with Vice President Vance has positioned a close associate of the Eurosceptic vice-president at the forefront of President Trump's recent effort to conclude the conflict.

Before his recent trip to Kyiv, Driscoll was not known as a mediator or diplomat, and his initial efforts to sell the agreement to European policymakers were labeled chaotic.

His close relationship with Vance, with whom he attended Yale and maintains a close friendship, indicate the rising influence of the isolationist vice-president in negotiations to end the Ukraine war.

The VP's Role in Peace Efforts

It was Vance who stepped in during Ukraine's president's disastrous initial trip to the White House in March and insisted he show Trump more respect. Now, Ukraine is again resisting pressure from the US to agree to a quick deal that Ukrainian leaders have described as a capitulation.

Following a chaotic first year in power, international actions in the White House are said to be shaped by a small group of Trump's key advisers, such as chief of staff Susie Wiles, conservative adviser Stephen Miller, envoy Steve Witkoff, State Department head Marco Rubio, and of course Vance.

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

“Every objection of the ceasefire plan the administration is developing either misinterprets the proposal or misstates some critical reality on the ground,” Vance wrote.

Initial Efforts and European Reactions

Vance's initial efforts at hammering out a peace deal with Russia, while simultaneously attempting to restore ties with Moscow, were unsuccessful and left his team feeling disappointed with their Russian interlocutors. Leaders in Europe, in turn, were irritated by his early speeches, in which he accused them of running from their voters, who Vance claimed held anti-immigration and right-leaning positions close to those of Trump's own constituency.

But, the new ceasefire proposal mirrored his stances, and he has been one of the most forceful spokespeople for the agreement in the government, even as the US has been criticized for endorsing a ceasefire plan that largely echoes Vladimir Putin's maximalist terms.

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

“A ceasefire won’t be made by failed diplomats or officials living in a dream world,” he added. “It could 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 phone call with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had primarily instructed his team with obtaining a agreement on the peace deal before Thanksgiving this week in the United States.

Rubio's Response and Internal Concerns

Vance's stance was a notably more full-throated endorsement of the plan than that expressed by the top diplomat and national security adviser, Marco Rubio, a more traditional hardliner in the government who has transitioned from a uncertain position inside the White House to more firm footing.

Rubio was part of a US delegation that went to Geneva this weekend to confer with Ukrainian leaders to help moderate the original 28-point ceasefire proposal in order to make it more palatable to leaders in Kyiv.

But, his initial reaction to the agreement was tepid:

“Stopping a complex and deadly conflict such as the one in Ukraine demands an extensive exchange of substantive and pragmatic proposals,” Rubio wrote recently. “Furthermore, achieving a durable peace will require each party to agree to challenging but necessary compromises. That is why we are and will continue to create a list of potential ideas for ending this war drawing from feedback from each party of this conflict.”

In private, he was said to be much more skeptical of the plan. The Republican senator Mike Rounds stated last week at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had contacted legislators to explain that the agreement was merely a preliminary offer from the Russians and not an initiative pushed by the administration.

“The Secretary did make a phone call to us this afternoon and I believe he emphasized to us that we are the receivers of a offer that was delivered to one of our representatives,” said Rounds. “It is not our suggestion, it is not our ceasefire proposal.”

Rubio acted swiftly to fall in line. “The peace proposal was authored by the US,” he later wrote. “The framework is offered as a solid structure for continuing discussions. It is derived from input from the Moscow. However, it is also based on previous and current contributions from Ukraine.”