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America's Army Secretary, Daniel Driscoll, was an surprising diplomat for the White House's latest initiative to end the conflict in Ukraine. Driscoll's strong relationship with Vice President Vance has positioned a close associate of the Eurosceptic vice-president at the forefront of Donald Trump latest effort to conclude the war.

Before his last week's trip to Kyiv, Driscoll was not known as a negotiator or statesman, and his initial efforts to sell the deal to European policymakers were described as chaotic.

His strong ties with Vance, with whom he attended Yale and maintains a personal bond, signal the rising influence of the non-interventionist vice-president in negotiations to end the Ukraine war.

The VP's Involvement in Ceasefire Efforts

It was Vance who intervened during Ukraine's president's rocky first visit to the Trump White House in March and demanded he show Trump more respect. Now, Ukraine is again resisting pressure from the US to agree to a quick settlement that local officials have called a capitulation.

After a tumultuous initial year in power, foreign policy actions in the White House are reportedly shaped by a handful of Trump's top advisers, including chief of staff Susie Wiles, conservative advisor Stephen Miller, diplomat Steve Witkoff, State Department head Marco Rubio, and finally Vance.

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

“Every criticism of the ceasefire plan the White House is developing either misunderstands the proposal or misrepresents some key reality on the ground,” the VP stated.

Initial Attempts and European Reactions

Vance's initial efforts at hammering out a ceasefire agreement with Russia, while simultaneously attempting to renew ties with Moscow, were fruitless and left his team feeling frustrated with their Russian interlocutors. European officials, meanwhile, were irritated by his early speeches, in which he accused them of ignoring their voters, who Vance said held anti-immigration and right-leaning positions similar to those of Trump's own supporters.

But, the recently published peace deal closely resembled his stances, and he has been one of the most assertive spokespeople for the deal in the government, even as the US has been criticized for accepting a ceasefire plan that largely echoes Vladimir Putin's maximalist terms.

In posts this past weekend, Vance argued that a ceasefire agreement would have to establish a truce that honored Ukrainian independence, be agreeable to each party, and stop the conflict from resuming.

“A ceasefire will not be made by failed diplomats or politicians residing in a dream world,” he continued. “An agreement could be made by smart people living in the actual situation.”

Additionally, it was Vance who continued on the presentation of the ceasefire proposal in a conversation with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had mainly tasked his team with securing a agreement on the peace deal prior to Thanksgiving this Thursday in the United States.

The Secretary of State's Reaction and Internal Concerns

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

Rubio was a member of a US team that traveled to Geneva this past weekend to meet with Ukrainian leaders to help refine the initial 28-point ceasefire proposal in order to make it more palatable to authorities in Kyiv.

However, his first reaction to the agreement was tepid:

“Stopping a complicated and violent war such as the one in Ukraine demands an thorough exchange of serious and realistic proposals,” Rubio wrote over the weekend. “And, securing a lasting ceasefire will require each party to consent to difficult but necessary concessions. That is why we are and will continue to create a set of possible ideas for resolving this war based on input from both sides of this war.”

In private, he was reportedly much more skeptical of the proposal. The Republican senator Mike Rounds stated recently at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had contacted lawmakers to clarify that the agreement was just a initial offer from the Russians and not an initiative pushed by the White House.

“Rubio made a call to us this afternoon and I believe he made it very clear to us that we are the receivers of a offer that was delivered to one of our officials,” said Rounds. “It is not our suggestion, it is not our peace plan.”

Rubio acted swiftly to align himself. “The peace proposal was authored by the US,” he later wrote. “The framework is offered as a strong structure for continuing negotiations. It is based on feedback from the Russian side. However, it is additionally based on previous and current input from Ukraine.”