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The US Army Secretary, Dan Driscoll, emerged as an surprising diplomat for the Trump administration latest proposal to resolve the conflict in Ukraine. His close connection with JD Vance has placed a key ally of the Euroskeptic vice-president at the center of Donald Trump latest effort to settle the conflict.

Prior to his last week's visit to Kyiv, Driscoll was not known as a mediator or statesman, and his early attempts to promote the agreement to officials in Europe were described as chaotic.

Driscoll's close ties with Vance, with whom he studied and shares a close friendship, indicate the resurgence of the non-interventionist vice-president in talks to resolve the Ukraine crisis.

Vance's Involvement in Ceasefire Negotiations

It was Vance who stepped in during Ukraine's president's disastrous initial trip to the Trump White House in March and demanded he show Trump more courtesy. Currently, Ukraine is once again resisting demands from the US to accept a swift deal that Ukrainian leaders have described as a surrender.

Following a tumultuous first year in power, foreign policy actions in the White House are said to be shaped by a handful of Trump's key advisers, including chief of staff Susie Wiles, rightwing adviser Stephen Miller, envoy Steve Witkoff, State Department head 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, together with the Kremlin envoy Kirill Dmitriev.

“All criticism of the ceasefire plan the White House is developing either misunderstands the proposal or misstates some critical reality on the ground,” Vance wrote.

Initial Efforts and EU Reactions

Vance's initial efforts at hammering out a peace deal with Russia, while also attempting to restore ties with Moscow, were fruitless and left his team feeling disappointed with their Russian interlocutors. Leaders in Europe, in turn, were angered by his initial speeches, in which he accused them of running from their constituents, who Vance claimed held restrictionist and right-leaning views similar 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 assertive advocates for the deal in the government, even as the US has been criticized for accepting a ceasefire plan that largely echoes Vladimir Putin's maximalist demands.

In social media updates this past weekend, Vance argued that a peace deal would have to establish a ceasefire that respected Ukrainian independence, be agreeable to each party, and prevent the conflict from resuming.

“Peace won’t be made by unsuccessful diplomats or officials residing in a dream world,” he continued. “An agreement might be made by intelligent people operating in the actual situation.”

It was Vance who followed up on the introduction of the ceasefire proposal in a phone call with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had primarily tasked his team with securing a signature on the ceasefire accord before Thanksgiving this week in the United States.

The Secretary of State's Response and Internal Doubts

Vance's stance was a distinctly more enthusiastic endorsement of the plan than that expressed by the secretary of state and security advisor, Marco Rubio, a more conventional hawk in the government who has gone from a shaky stature inside the administration to more firm standing.

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

However, his initial reaction to the deal was lukewarm:

“Ending a complex and deadly war such as the one in Ukraine demands an thorough exchange of substantive and pragmatic ideas,” Rubio stated recently. “And, achieving a lasting peace will require each party to consent to difficult but necessary compromises. That is why we are and will continue to develop a list of potential solutions for ending this conflict drawing from input from both sides of this war.”

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

“The Secretary did make a phone call to us this day and I think he emphasized to us that we are the recipients of a proposal that was presented to one of our representatives,” stated Rounds. “It is not our suggestion, it is not our peace plan.”

Rubio acted swiftly to align himself. “The peace proposal was authored by the US,” he subsequently wrote. “The framework is offered as a solid structure for continuing negotiations. The proposal is derived from input from the Russian side. But, it is also based on previous and ongoing input from Ukraine.”