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America's Army Secretary, Dan Driscoll, was an unlikely envoy for the White House's latest proposal to resolve the conflict in Ukraine. Driscoll's close relationship with Vice President Vance has placed a key ally of the Eurosceptic VP at the forefront of Donald Trump latest push to settle the conflict.

Prior to his last week's visit to Kyiv, Driscoll was unrecognized as a mediator or diplomat, and his initial efforts to sell the agreement to officials in Europe were labeled turbulent.

His close relationship with Vance, with whom he attended Yale and shares a close friendship, indicate the resurgence of the non-interventionist vice-president in talks to end the Ukraine war.

Vance's Involvement in Ceasefire Efforts

This was Vance who stepped in during Volodymyr Zelenskyy rocky first visit to the White House in March and insisted he show Trump more courtesy. Now, Ukraine is again resisting demands from the US to agree to a swift deal that local officials have called a capitulation.

Following a tumultuous first year in power, international actions in the White House are said to be influenced by a small group of Trump's top advisers, such as chief of staff Susie Wiles, rightwing adviser Stephen Miller, diplomat Steve Witkoff, State Department head Marco Rubio, and finally Vance.

Vance has been a outspoken advocate of the latest proposal, which was crafted by Witkoff and Trump's relative Jared Kushner, alongside the Kremlin envoy Kirill Dmitriev.

“Every objection of the ceasefire plan the administration is developing either misunderstands the proposal or misrepresents some key reality on the ground,” Vance stated.

Initial Efforts and European Reactions

Vance's initial efforts at hammering out a ceasefire agreement with Russia, while simultaneously seeking to restore relations with Moscow, were fruitless and left his team feeling frustrated with their Russian counterparts. European officials, meanwhile, were irritated by his early speeches, in which he accused them of running from their constituents, who Vance claimed held restrictionist and conservative views similar to those of Trump's own supporters.

However, the recently published ceasefire proposal mirrored his stances, and he has been one of the most forceful spokespeople for the deal in the administration, even as the US has been under fire for accepting a peace framework that largely echoes Vladimir Putin's extreme terms.

In social media updates this past weekend, Vance argued that a peace deal would have to produce a ceasefire that respected Ukrainian independence, be acceptable to each party, and prevent the war from restarting.

“Peace won’t be made by failed diplomats or politicians living in a dream world,” he continued. “It might be made by intelligent people operating in the real world.”

Additionally, it was Vance who followed up on the presentation of the peace plan in a phone call with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had primarily instructed his staff with obtaining a signature on the ceasefire accord prior to Thanksgiving this week in the United States.

The Secretary of State's Response and Internal Concerns

Vance's stance was a distinctly 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 gone from a uncertain position inside the White House to more stable standing.

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

However, his first response to the agreement was lukewarm:

“Ending a complicated and violent conflict such as the one in Ukraine requires an extensive exchange of substantive and realistic proposals,” Rubio wrote recently. “Furthermore, achieving a lasting peace will necessitate both sides to agree to challenging but essential compromises. That is why we are and will continue to create a list of possible solutions for resolving this war based on input from both sides of this war.”

Behind closed doors, he was reportedly 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 called legislators to clarify that the deal was just a initial proposal from the Russians and not an plan advocated by the administration.

“Rubio made a call to us this day and I believe he emphasized to us that we are the receivers of a proposal that was delivered to one of our representatives,” stated Rounds. “It is not our recommendation, it is not our ceasefire proposal.”

Rubio acted swiftly to fall in line. “The peace proposal was authored by the US,” he subsequently wrote. “The framework is presented as a solid framework for continuing discussions. The proposal is derived from feedback from the Moscow. However, it is additionally informed by earlier and ongoing input from Ukraine.”