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The US Army Secretary, Dan Driscoll, was an unlikely envoy for the Trump administration latest initiative to resolve the conflict in Ukraine. Driscoll's close relationship with JD Vance has placed a close associate of the Euroskeptic vice-president at the forefront of President Trump's latest push to settle the conflict.

Before his last week's visit to Kyiv, Driscoll was not known as a mediator or statesman, and his initial attempts to promote the agreement to officials in Europe were described as chaotic.

Driscoll's strong relationship with Vance, who he attended Yale and shares a close friendship, signal the resurgence of the isolationist vice-president in talks to resolve the Ukraine war.

Vance's Role in Peace Efforts

It was Vance who intervened during Ukraine's president's disastrous initial visit to the Trump White House in March and insisted he show Trump more courtesy. Currently, Ukraine is once again resisting pressure from the US to accept a quick deal that Ukrainian leaders have called a surrender.

Following a chaotic initial year in power, international decisions in the White House are reportedly influenced by a small group of Trump's top aides, such as top aide Susie Wiles, rightwing adviser Stephen Miller, diplomat Steve Witkoff, State Department head Marco Rubio, and of course Vance.

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

“Every criticism of the peace framework the White House is working on either misunderstands the framework or misrepresents some key reality on the ground,” Vance wrote.

Initial Attempts and EU Responses

Vance's initial efforts at hammering out a ceasefire agreement with Russia, while also attempting to restore relations with Moscow, were unsuccessful and left his team feeling frustrated with their Russian interlocutors. European officials, meanwhile, were angered by his early speeches, in which he charged them of running from their voters, who Vance claimed held restrictionist and right-leaning views similar to those of Trump's own constituency.

But, the recently published peace deal mirrored his positions, and he has been one of the most assertive spokespeople for the agreement in the administration, even as the US has been under fire for accepting a peace framework that largely echoes Vladimir Putin's extreme demands.

In social media updates this weekend, Vance argued that a peace deal would have to produce a truce that respected Ukrainian independence, be acceptable to both sides, and prevent the conflict from resuming.

“A ceasefire won’t be made by unsuccessful negotiators or officials living in a fantasy land,” he continued. “An agreement 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 conversation with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had primarily tasked his team with obtaining a signature on the peace deal before Thanksgiving this week in the United States.

Rubio's Response and Private Concerns

Vance's stance was a notably more full-throated endorsement of the plan than that given by the secretary of state and security advisor, Marco Rubio, a more conventional hawk in the administration who has gone from a uncertain stature inside the administration to more firm standing.

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

However, his first response to the agreement was lukewarm:

“Ending a complex and deadly conflict such as the one in Ukraine requires an thorough discussion of substantive and pragmatic ideas,” Rubio stated over the weekend. “Furthermore, achieving a durable peace will necessitate each party to consent to challenging but necessary concessions. This is the reason we are and will continue to develop a set of potential ideas for ending this war based on input from each party of this conflict.”

In private, he was reportedly much more doubtful of the proposal. The GOP lawmaker Mike Rounds stated recently at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had contacted lawmakers to clarify that the agreement was merely a preliminary offer from the Russians and not an initiative advocated by the White House.

“The Secretary made a call to us this day and I believe he emphasized to us that we are the recipients of a proposal that was delivered to one of our officials,” said Rounds. “The document is not our suggestion, it is not our peace plan.”

Rubio moved quickly to fall in line. “This ceasefire plan was written by the US,” he later stated. “It is offered as a solid structure for continuing negotiations. It is based on input from the Moscow. But, it is additionally based on previous and current contributions from Ukraine.”