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America's Army Secretary, Daniel Driscoll, was an surprising diplomat for the Trump administration latest initiative to end the conflict in Ukraine. His strong connection with Vice President Vance has positioned a close associate of the Euroskeptic VP at the center of President Trump's recent effort to conclude the conflict.

Prior to his recent trip to Kyiv, Driscoll was not known as a mediator or diplomat, and his early attempts to promote the deal to officials in Europe were described as chaotic.

His strong relationship with Vance, with whom he attended Yale and maintains a personal bond, indicate the resurgence of the isolationist vice-president in negotiations to resolve the Ukraine crisis.

The VP's Role in Ceasefire Negotiations

This was Vance who stepped in during Volodymyr Zelenskyy disastrous initial visit to the White House in March and demanded he show Trump more respect. Currently, Ukraine is again pushing back against demands from the US to accept a swift deal that local officials have called a capitulation.

Following a chaotic initial year in office, foreign policy decisions in the White House are said to be influenced by a small group of Trump's top advisers, including top aide Susie Wiles, rightwing advisor Stephen Miller, diplomat Steve Witkoff, secretary of state Marco Rubio, and of course Vance.

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

“Every criticism of the ceasefire plan the administration is working on either misunderstands the proposal or misrepresents some critical situation on the ground,” Vance wrote.

Initial Efforts and EU Responses

Vance's initial attempts at negotiating a peace deal with Russia, while simultaneously attempting to restore relations with Moscow, were unsuccessful and left his team feeling frustrated with their Russian counterparts. Leaders in Europe, 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 right-leaning views close to those of Trump's own supporters.

However, the recently published ceasefire proposal mirrored his positions, and he has been one of the most forceful spokespeople for the deal in the government, even as the US has been criticized for accepting a peace framework that largely echoes Vladimir Putin's maximalist demands.

In social media updates this weekend, Vance asserted that a ceasefire agreement would have to establish a ceasefire that honored Ukrainian sovereignty, be agreeable to both sides, and prevent the war from resuming.

“Peace won’t be made by unsuccessful negotiators or officials living in a dream world,” he continued. “An agreement might be made by smart people living in the actual situation.”

It was Vance who continued on the presentation of the peace plan in a phone call with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had primarily instructed his staff with securing a agreement on the peace deal prior to Thanksgiving this week in the United States.

Rubio's Response and Internal Doubts

That was a notably more full-throated support of the plan than that given by the secretary of state and national security adviser, Marco Rubio, a more traditional hardliner in the government who has transitioned from a uncertain stature inside the administration to more stable standing.

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

However, his first response to the deal was tepid:

“Stopping a complex and violent conflict such as the one in Ukraine demands an thorough discussion of substantive and pragmatic proposals,” Rubio stated recently. “Furthermore, achieving a durable peace will necessitate both sides to consent to difficult but necessary concessions. This is the reason we are and will continue to create a list of possible solutions for ending this war drawing from feedback from both sides of this war.”

In private, he was reportedly much more doubtful of the proposal. The Republican senator Mike Rounds said recently at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had contacted lawmakers to explain that the agreement was just a preliminary proposal from the Russians and not an initiative pushed by the administration.

“Rubio made a phone call to us this afternoon and I believe he made it very clear to us that we are the recipients of a proposal that was presented to one of our representatives,” said Rounds. “The document is not our suggestion, it is not our peace plan.”

Rubio moved quickly to align himself. “The peace proposal was authored by the US,” he subsequently wrote. “The framework is presented as a solid framework for ongoing negotiations. The proposal is based on feedback from the Moscow. But, it is also based on previous and ongoing input from Ukraine.”