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America's Secretary of the Army, Daniel Driscoll, emerged as an surprising envoy for the Trump administration newest initiative to end the conflict in Ukraine. Driscoll's close relationship with Vice President Vance has positioned a close associate of the Euroskeptic VP at the center of Donald Trump latest push to conclude the war.

Before his recent trip to Kyiv, Driscoll was unrecognized as a negotiator or diplomat, and his early attempts to sell the deal to officials in Europe were labeled turbulent.

His strong relationship with Vance, with whom he studied and maintains a close friendship, indicate the rising influence of the non-interventionist VP in negotiations to end the Ukraine crisis.

The VP's Role in Peace Negotiations

This was Vance who intervened during Ukraine's president's disastrous first visit to the White House in March and insisted he show Trump more respect. Now, Ukraine is again pushing back against pressure from the US to agree to a quick settlement that Ukrainian leaders have described as a capitulation.

After a tumultuous initial year in office, foreign policy actions in the White House are reportedly shaped by a small group of Trump's top aides, including top aide Susie Wiles, rightwing adviser Stephen Miller, envoy Steve Witkoff, secretary of state Marco Rubio, and of course Vance.

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

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

Initial Efforts and European Responses

Vance's initial efforts at hammering out a peace deal with Russia, while simultaneously seeking to restore relations with Moscow, were fruitless and left his team feeling disappointed with their Russian counterparts. European officials, in turn, were irritated by his initial remarks, in which he accused 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 peace deal mirrored 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 largely resembles Vladimir Putin's extreme terms.

In social media updates this weekend, Vance asserted that a peace deal would have to produce a ceasefire that respected Ukrainian independence, be agreeable to both sides, and stop the conflict from restarting.

“A ceasefire will not be made by failed negotiators or officials residing in a dream world,” he continued. “An agreement might be made by intelligent people living in the real world.”

Additionally, it was Vance who continued on the presentation of the ceasefire proposal in a phone call with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had mainly instructed his staff with securing a agreement on the peace deal before Thanksgiving this Thursday in the United States.

The Secretary of State's Response and Private Doubts

Vance's stance was a notably more full-throated endorsement of the plan than that given by the secretary of state and security advisor, Marco Rubio, a more conventional hardliner in the administration who has transitioned from a uncertain position inside the administration to more firm standing.

Rubio was part of a US delegation that traveled to Geneva this weekend to meet with Ukrainian officials to help moderate the initial 28-point ceasefire proposal in order to make it more acceptable to leaders in Kyiv.

But, his first response to the deal was lukewarm:

“Ending a complex and deadly conflict such as the one in Ukraine requires an thorough discussion of serious and pragmatic proposals,” Rubio stated recently. “And, achieving a durable ceasefire will require both sides to agree to challenging but essential concessions. This is the reason we are and will persist to develop a set of possible ideas for resolving this war drawing from input from each party of this war.”

Behind closed doors, he was reportedly much more doubtful of the plan. The GOP lawmaker Mike Rounds said last week at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had called legislators to explain that the deal was merely a preliminary proposal from the Russians and not an initiative pushed by the White House.

“Rubio did make a call to us this day 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,” stated Rounds. “The document is not our recommendation, it is not our peace plan.”

Rubio acted swiftly to align himself. “The peace proposal was authored by the US,” he later stated. “It is presented as a strong structure for ongoing discussions. It is based on feedback from the Moscow. But, it is also based on previous and current input from Ukraine.”