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America's Army Secretary, Daniel Driscoll, emerged as an unlikely envoy for the White House's newest proposal to resolve the Russian invasion in Ukraine. Driscoll's strong connection with JD Vance has positioned a close associate of the Euroskeptic vice-president at the center of President Trump's recent effort to conclude the conflict.

Prior to his last week's trip to Kyiv, Driscoll was not known as a negotiator or statesman, and his early attempts to promote the agreement to European policymakers were described as turbulent.

His strong ties with Vance, with whom he attended Yale and maintains a personal bond, signal the resurgence of the non-interventionist VP in negotiations to resolve the Ukraine crisis.

Vance's Role in Peace Negotiations

This was Vance who intervened during Ukraine's president's rocky first visit to the White House in March and insisted he show Trump more courtesy. Now, Ukraine is again pushing back against demands from the US to agree to a quick deal that Ukrainian leaders have called 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, including top aide Susie Wiles, rightwing 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 crafted by Witkoff and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, together with the Russian diplomat Kirill Dmitriev.

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

Initial Efforts and EU Reactions

Vance's initial efforts at hammering out a ceasefire agreement with Russia, while simultaneously attempting to renew relations with Moscow, were fruitless and left his team feeling frustrated with their Russian counterparts. Leaders in Europe, in turn, were angered by his early speeches, in which he accused them of ignoring their voters, who Vance said held restrictionist and conservative positions close to those of Trump's own supporters.

But, the recently published peace deal mirrored his stances, and he has been one of the most assertive advocates for the agreement in the government, even as the US has been under fire for accepting a peace framework that largely echoes Vladimir Putin's maximalist terms.

In posts this past weekend, Vance asserted that a ceasefire agreement would have to produce a truce that respected Ukrainian independence, be acceptable to both sides, and stop the war from resuming.

“Peace won’t be made by failed negotiators or politicians living in a fantasy land,” he continued. “An agreement might be made by intelligent people operating in the actual situation.”

Additionally, it was Vance who followed up on the presentation of the peace plan in a phone call with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had mainly tasked his staff with securing a signature on the peace deal before Thanksgiving this Thursday in the United States.

Rubio's Response and Internal Doubts

That was a notably more full-throated support of the plan than that expressed by the top diplomat and security advisor, Marco Rubio, a more conventional hardliner in the government 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 weekend to confer with Ukrainian officials to help refine the initial 28-point peace plan in order to make it more palatable to authorities in Kyiv.

However, his first reaction to the deal was tepid:

“Stopping a complex and violent conflict such as the one in Ukraine requires an extensive discussion of substantive and realistic proposals,” Rubio stated over the weekend. “Furthermore, securing a durable ceasefire will necessitate both sides to agree to difficult but essential compromises. That is why we are and will persist to create a set of possible ideas for ending this war based on feedback from each party of this war.”

In private, he was said to be much more skeptical of the plan. The GOP lawmaker Mike Rounds said recently at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had contacted legislators to clarify that the deal was merely a preliminary offer from the Russians and not an plan pushed by the White House.

“Rubio did make a phone call to us this day and I think he emphasized to us that we are the recipients of a proposal that was delivered to one of our representatives,” stated Rounds. “The document is not our recommendation, it is not our peace plan.”

Rubio acted swiftly to align himself. “This ceasefire plan was authored by the US,” he subsequently stated. “It is presented as a strong structure for ongoing negotiations. It is based on input from the Russian side. However, it is additionally based on previous and current input from Ukraine.”