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The US Secretary of the Army, Dan Driscoll, was an surprising envoy for the Trump administration newest proposal to end the Russian invasion in Ukraine. His close connection with JD Vance has placed a key ally of the Eurosceptic VP at the forefront of President Trump's latest effort to settle the conflict.

Prior to his last week's trip to Kyiv, Driscoll was not known as a mediator or diplomat, and his initial attempts to sell the agreement to officials in Europe were described as chaotic.

Driscoll's close ties with Vance, who he studied and shares a personal bond, indicate the rising influence of the isolationist VP in talks to end the Ukraine war.

Vance's Involvement in Ceasefire Negotiations

It was Vance who intervened during Volodymyr Zelenskyy rocky first trip to the White House in March and insisted he show Trump more respect. Now, Ukraine is once again pushing back against demands from the US to accept a quick deal that local officials have described as a capitulation.

Following a chaotic first year in office, international actions in the White House are reportedly influenced by a small group of Trump's key aides, such as top aide Susie Wiles, conservative adviser Stephen Miller, envoy Steve Witkoff, secretary of state Marco Rubio, and of course Vance.

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

“All objection of the ceasefire plan the White House is developing either misinterprets the framework or misrepresents some critical reality on the ground,” the VP stated.

Initial Attempts and EU Reactions

Vance's initial efforts at negotiating a ceasefire agreement with Russia, while also seeking to renew ties with Moscow, were fruitless and left his camp feeling frustrated with their Russian counterparts. European officials, in turn, were angered by his early speeches, in which he accused them of running from their voters, who Vance said held anti-immigration and conservative views close to those of Trump's own constituency.

But, the recently published ceasefire proposal closely resembled his positions, and he has been one of the most forceful spokespeople for the agreement in the administration, even as the US has been under fire for endorsing a peace framework that mostly resembles Vladimir Putin's maximalist demands.

In posts this past weekend, Vance asserted that a ceasefire agreement would have to establish a ceasefire that respected Ukrainian sovereignty, be acceptable to each party, and stop the conflict from resuming.

“Peace will not be made by unsuccessful diplomats or officials living in a dream world,” he continued. “It could be made by intelligent people living in the real world.”

It was Vance who continued on the presentation of the ceasefire proposal in a phone call with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had primarily instructed his team with securing a signature on the peace deal before Thanksgiving this Thursday in the United States.

The Secretary of State's Response and Private Concerns

Vance's stance was a notably more full-throated support of the proposal than that expressed by the secretary of state and security advisor, Marco Rubio, a more traditional hardliner in the government who has gone from a uncertain position inside the White House to more stable standing.

Rubio was a member of a US delegation that went to Geneva this weekend to meet with Ukrainian leaders to help refine the original 28-point ceasefire proposal in order to make it more acceptable to leaders in Kyiv.

But, his first reaction to the deal was tepid:

“Stopping a complex and deadly war such as the one in Ukraine demands an extensive exchange of substantive and pragmatic proposals,” Rubio stated over the weekend. “And, achieving a lasting peace will necessitate both sides to agree to difficult but necessary concessions. This is the reason we are and will continue to create a set of potential ideas for resolving this war drawing from input from both sides of this war.”

In private, he was said to be much more skeptical of the proposal. The Republican senator Mike Rounds said last week at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had called legislators to clarify that the agreement was just a preliminary offer from the Russians and not an initiative pushed by the administration.

“The Secretary made a phone call to us this afternoon and I think he made it very clear to us that we are the recipients of a proposal that was delivered to one of our representatives,” said Rounds. “It is not our recommendation, it is not our peace plan.”

Rubio acted swiftly to fall in line. “This ceasefire plan was written by the US,” he later wrote. “The framework is offered as a solid structure for ongoing discussions. The proposal is based on input from the Russian side. But, it is also informed by previous and current contributions from Ukraine.”