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The US Secretary of the Army, Dan Driscoll, emerged as an unlikely diplomat for the White House's latest proposal to resolve the conflict in Ukraine. Driscoll's strong connection with JD Vance has positioned a close associate of the Eurosceptic VP at the forefront of Donald Trump recent push to conclude the conflict.

Before his recent trip to Kyiv, Driscoll was not known as a mediator or diplomat, and his initial attempts to promote the agreement to European policymakers were described as turbulent.

Driscoll's close ties with Vance, who he studied and shares a personal bond, indicate the resurgence of the isolationist VP in talks to resolve the Ukraine crisis.

The VP's Involvement in Peace Negotiations

It was Vance who stepped in during Ukraine's president's rocky first visit to the Trump White House in March and insisted he show Trump more courtesy. Now, Ukraine is again resisting demands from the US to agree to a swift deal that Ukrainian leaders have called a surrender.

After a tumultuous first year in office, international decisions in the White House are reportedly shaped by a handful of Trump's top aides, such as chief of staff Susie Wiles, rightwing adviser Stephen Miller, envoy Steve Witkoff, State Department head Marco Rubio, and finally Vance.

Vance has been a outspoken supporter of the recent proposal, which was crafted by Witkoff and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, alongside the Kremlin envoy Kirill Dmitriev.

“Every objection of the ceasefire plan the White House is working on either misunderstands the proposal or misrepresents some key situation on the ground,” Vance wrote.

Early Attempts and EU Reactions

Vance's initial efforts at hammering out a ceasefire agreement with Russia, while simultaneously seeking to restore ties with Moscow, were fruitless and left his team feeling disappointed with their Russian counterparts. Leaders in Europe, meanwhile, were angered by his initial speeches, in which he charged them of ignoring their constituents, who Vance claimed held restrictionist and right-leaning positions close to those of Trump's own constituency.

However, the recently published peace deal mirrored his positions, and he has been one of the most assertive advocates for the deal in the administration, even as the US has been under fire for endorsing a ceasefire plan that mostly resembles Vladimir Putin's maximalist demands.

In social media updates this weekend, Vance asserted that a ceasefire agreement would have to produce a truce that honored Ukrainian independence, be agreeable to both sides, and stop the conflict from resuming.

“A ceasefire won’t be made by failed negotiators or officials residing in a fantasy land,” he continued. “An agreement could be made by smart people living in the real world.”

Additionally, it was Vance who followed up on the introduction of the ceasefire proposal in a conversation with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had mainly tasked his staff with obtaining a agreement on the peace deal before Thanksgiving this Thursday in the United States.

The Secretary of State's Reaction and Internal Doubts

That was a notably more full-throated support of the plan than that expressed by the secretary of state and security advisor, Marco Rubio, a more traditional hawk in the government who has gone from a shaky position inside the administration to more stable standing.

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

However, his first reaction to the agreement was lukewarm:

“Stopping a complex and violent conflict such as the one in Ukraine requires an thorough exchange of substantive and pragmatic ideas,” Rubio stated recently. “And, securing a lasting ceasefire will necessitate each party to agree to difficult but essential concessions. This is the reason we are and will continue to develop a list of possible ideas for resolving this conflict drawing from feedback from each party of this war.”

Behind closed doors, 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 explain that the deal was merely a initial proposal from the Russians and not an initiative pushed by the administration.

“Rubio did make a call to us this day and I think he made it very clear to us that we are the receivers of a proposal that was presented to one of our officials,” said Rounds. “It is not our suggestion, it is not our peace plan.”

Rubio moved quickly to align himself. “This ceasefire plan was authored by the US,” he later stated. “It is offered as a strong structure for ongoing discussions. The proposal is derived from feedback from the Russian side. But, it is also based on earlier and current contributions from Ukraine.”