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The US Army Secretary, Daniel Driscoll, was an surprising diplomat for the Trump administration latest initiative to resolve the conflict in Ukraine. His strong relationship with JD Vance has placed a key ally of the Eurosceptic vice-president at the center of President Trump's latest push to conclude the war.

Prior to his recent visit to Kyiv, Driscoll was not known as a mediator or diplomat, and his early efforts to promote the deal to European policymakers were described as chaotic.

Driscoll's close ties with Vance, who he attended Yale and shares a close friendship, signal the rising influence of the non-interventionist vice-president in negotiations to end the Ukraine war.

The VP's Involvement in Peace Negotiations

It was Vance who intervened during Volodymyr Zelenskyy rocky initial visit to the Trump White House in March and insisted he show Trump more courtesy. Currently, Ukraine is once again pushing back against pressure from the US to agree to a swift deal that Ukrainian leaders have described as a capitulation.

Following a tumultuous initial year in power, international actions in the White House are said to be influenced by a handful of Trump's key aides, such as chief of staff Susie Wiles, rightwing advisor Stephen Miller, diplomat Steve Witkoff, State Department head Marco Rubio, and finally Vance.

Vance has been a outspoken advocate of the recent plan, which was developed by Witkoff and Trump's relative Jared Kushner, together with the Russian diplomat Kirill Dmitriev.

“All objection of the peace framework the White House is working on either misinterprets the proposal or misrepresents some key situation on the ground,” Vance wrote.

Early Efforts and EU Reactions

Vance's early attempts at hammering out a peace deal with Russia, while also attempting to renew ties with Moscow, were unsuccessful and left his team feeling disappointed with their Russian counterparts. Leaders in Europe, meanwhile, were irritated by his initial remarks, in which he accused them of running from their voters, who Vance claimed held anti-immigration and conservative views similar to those of Trump's own supporters.

But, the recently published ceasefire proposal closely resembled his positions, and he has been one of the most forceful advocates for the deal in the administration, even as the US has been under fire for accepting a ceasefire plan that largely resembles Vladimir Putin's extreme demands.

In posts this past weekend, Vance argued that a peace deal would have to establish a ceasefire that respected Ukrainian sovereignty, be acceptable to both sides, and stop the war from resuming.

“Peace will not be made by failed diplomats or officials living in a fantasy land,” he added. “It could be made by intelligent people living in the actual situation.”

It was Vance who followed up on the presentation of the peace plan in a conversation with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had mainly instructed his staff with securing a agreement on the peace deal prior to Thanksgiving this Thursday in the United States.

Rubio's Reaction and Internal Doubts

That was a distinctly more enthusiastic support of the proposal than that given by the top diplomat and security advisor, Marco Rubio, a more traditional hawk in the government who has transitioned from a shaky position inside the administration to more stable footing.

Rubio was a member of a US delegation 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.

But, his first reaction to the deal was lukewarm:

“Ending a complicated and violent conflict such as the one in Ukraine demands an thorough exchange of substantive and realistic proposals,” Rubio stated recently. “And, achieving a lasting peace will necessitate each party to consent to challenging but essential compromises. This is the reason we are and will persist to develop a set 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 doubtful of the plan. The GOP lawmaker Mike Rounds stated recently at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had contacted legislators to explain that the deal was merely a preliminary proposal from the Russians and not an plan pushed by the White House.

“Rubio made a phone call to us this afternoon and I believe he emphasized to us that we are the receivers 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 moved quickly to fall in line. “The peace proposal was authored by the US,” he later wrote. “It is presented as a strong structure for continuing discussions. The proposal is based on input from the Russian side. However, it is additionally based on previous and ongoing input from Ukraine.”