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The US Army Secretary, Daniel Driscoll, emerged as an unlikely diplomat for the White House's latest proposal to end the conflict in Ukraine. Driscoll's strong connection with JD Vance has placed a key ally of the Eurosceptic VP at the center of President Trump's latest push to settle the war.

Before his recent visit to Kyiv, Driscoll was not known as a mediator or statesman, and his early efforts to sell the agreement to European policymakers were labeled chaotic.

His close ties with Vance, with whom he attended Yale and maintains a close friendship, signal the resurgence of the isolationist vice-president in talks to resolve the Ukraine crisis.

Vance's Involvement in Peace Efforts

It was Vance who stepped in during Volodymyr Zelenskyy rocky first visit to the Trump White House in March and insisted he show Trump more respect. Now, Ukraine is again resisting demands from the US to accept a quick deal that local officials have described as a surrender.

Following a tumultuous first year in office, foreign policy decisions in the White House are said to be influenced by a handful of Trump's key advisers, including chief of staff Susie Wiles, conservative adviser Stephen Miller, envoy Steve Witkoff, State Department head Marco Rubio, and of course Vance.

Vance has been a outspoken supporter of the latest plan, which was crafted by Witkoff and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, alongside the Russian diplomat Kirill Dmitriev.

“Every criticism of the ceasefire plan the administration is working on either misunderstands the proposal or misstates some key reality on the ground,” the VP wrote.

Early Efforts and EU Reactions

Vance's early attempts at hammering out a ceasefire agreement with Russia, while also attempting to renew ties with Moscow, were unsuccessful and left his team feeling frustrated with their Russian interlocutors. European officials, meanwhile, were angered by his early speeches, in which he charged them of running from their voters, who Vance claimed held anti-immigration and right-leaning positions similar to those of Trump's own supporters.

However, the new ceasefire proposal closely resembled his stances, and he has been one of the most forceful advocates for the deal in the government, 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 peace deal would have to produce a ceasefire that honored Ukrainian independence, be agreeable to both sides, and prevent the conflict from restarting.

“Peace will not be made by unsuccessful negotiators or officials residing in a dream world,” he added. “It could be made by smart people operating in the real world.”

Additionally, it was Vance who continued on the presentation of the peace plan in a conversation with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had primarily tasked his team with obtaining a agreement on the peace deal prior to Thanksgiving this week in the United States.

Rubio's Response and Private Doubts

That was a notably more full-throated endorsement of the plan than that expressed by the top diplomat and security advisor, Marco Rubio, a more conventional hawk in the government who has gone from a uncertain position inside the White House to more stable footing.

Rubio was a member of a US team that went 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 palatable to authorities in Kyiv.

However, his first reaction to the deal was tepid:

“Ending a complicated and deadly conflict such as the one in Ukraine demands an thorough exchange of serious and realistic ideas,” Rubio wrote over the weekend. “Furthermore, achieving a durable peace will require each party to consent to challenging but essential compromises. This is the reason we are and will persist to develop a set of potential solutions for ending this war drawing from input from both sides of this conflict.”

Behind closed doors, he was said to be much more skeptical of the proposal. The Republican senator Mike Rounds said recently at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had contacted legislators to explain that the deal was just a preliminary proposal from the Russians and not an initiative advocated by the administration.

“Rubio made a phone 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 representatives,” said Rounds. “It is not our suggestion, it is not our peace plan.”

Rubio moved quickly to fall in line. “The peace proposal was written by the US,” he later stated. “It is presented as a strong framework for continuing discussions. The proposal is based on feedback from the Moscow. However, it is also based on earlier and ongoing contributions from Ukraine.”