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America's Secretary of the Army, Daniel Driscoll, was an unlikely envoy for the Trump administration latest initiative to end the conflict in Ukraine. His strong relationship with Vice President Vance has positioned a key ally of the Euroskeptic vice-president at the center of Donald Trump latest effort to settle the war.

Before his recent trip to Kyiv, Driscoll was not known as a negotiator or statesman, and his early attempts to promote the agreement to officials in Europe were described as turbulent.

His strong ties with Vance, with whom he attended Yale and shares a close friendship, signal the resurgence of the non-interventionist VP in talks to resolve the Ukraine crisis.

The VP's Role in Ceasefire Efforts

It was Vance who intervened during Ukraine's president's disastrous first visit to the Trump White House in March and insisted he show Trump more courtesy. Currently, Ukraine is once again resisting demands from the US to agree to a quick deal that local officials have described as a surrender.

After a tumultuous first year in office, international decisions in the White House are reportedly influenced by a handful of Trump's top advisers, such as top aide Susie Wiles, rightwing advisor Stephen Miller, diplomat Steve Witkoff, secretary of state Marco Rubio, and finally Vance.

Vance has been a vocal advocate of the latest 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 peace framework the administration is developing either misunderstands the proposal or misstates some key situation on the ground,” the VP wrote.

Initial Efforts and EU Reactions

Vance's early attempts at hammering out a ceasefire agreement with Russia, while also seeking to restore ties with Moscow, were unsuccessful and left his team feeling disappointed with their Russian counterparts. European officials, meanwhile, were irritated by his initial speeches, in which he charged them of ignoring their constituents, who Vance claimed held restrictionist and right-leaning views similar to those of Trump's own supporters.

But, the new peace deal closely resembled his positions, and he has been one of the most assertive spokespeople for the deal in the government, even as the US has been under fire for endorsing a ceasefire plan that mostly echoes Vladimir Putin's maximalist terms.

In social media updates this past weekend, Vance asserted that a ceasefire agreement would have to establish a ceasefire that honored Ukrainian sovereignty, be agreeable to each party, and prevent the conflict from restarting.

“Peace will not be made by unsuccessful negotiators or officials residing in a fantasy land,” he continued. “It might be made by smart people living in the real world.”

Additionally, it was Vance who continued on the introduction of the ceasefire proposal in a conversation with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had primarily tasked his staff with obtaining a agreement on the ceasefire accord before Thanksgiving this week in the United States.

The Secretary of State's Reaction and Private Concerns

Vance's stance was a distinctly more enthusiastic endorsement of the plan than that given by the top diplomat and national security adviser, Marco Rubio, a more traditional hawk in the government who has gone from a uncertain position inside the administration to more firm footing.

Rubio was part of a US delegation that traveled to Geneva this past weekend to meet with Ukrainian officials to help refine the original 28-point peace plan in order to make it more palatable to authorities in Kyiv.

However, his first response to the deal was tepid:

“Stopping a complex and deadly war such as the one in Ukraine demands an thorough exchange of serious and realistic ideas,” Rubio stated recently. “Furthermore, achieving a durable ceasefire will necessitate each party to agree to difficult but necessary concessions. That is why we are and will continue to develop a list of potential ideas for resolving this war based on input from each party of this war.”

Behind closed doors, he was said to be much more doubtful of the plan. The GOP lawmaker Mike Rounds stated recently at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had called legislators to clarify that the agreement was just a preliminary offer from the Russians and not an initiative advocated by the administration.

“Rubio did make a call to us this afternoon and I think he emphasized to us that we are the recipients of a offer that was presented to one of our representatives,” stated Rounds. “It is not our suggestion, it is not our ceasefire proposal.”

Rubio moved quickly to align himself. “This ceasefire plan was authored by the US,” he later wrote. “It is offered as a solid framework for continuing negotiations. It is based on feedback from the Moscow. However, it is also based on previous and ongoing contributions from Ukraine.”