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The US Army Secretary, Daniel Driscoll, was an surprising envoy for the Trump administration newest proposal to resolve the conflict in Ukraine. His close connection with Vice President Vance has positioned a close associate of the Euroskeptic vice-president at the center of President Trump's latest effort to conclude the war.

Before his recent visit to Kyiv, Driscoll was not known as a negotiator or diplomat, and his initial attempts to sell the deal to European policymakers were described as chaotic.

Driscoll's close ties with Vance, with whom he studied and shares a close friendship, indicate the rising influence of the non-interventionist VP in talks to end the Ukraine war.

The VP's Involvement in Peace Efforts

This was Vance who intervened during Ukraine's president's rocky initial visit to the Trump White House in March and demanded he show Trump more courtesy. Now, Ukraine is once again resisting demands from the US to accept a quick settlement that Ukrainian leaders have described as a capitulation.

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

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

“Every objection of the peace framework the administration is developing either misinterprets the framework or misstates some critical situation on the ground,” the VP stated.

Initial Attempts and EU Reactions

Vance's early attempts at negotiating a peace deal with Russia, while simultaneously attempting to restore relations with Moscow, were unsuccessful and left his camp feeling frustrated with their Russian interlocutors. 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 close to those of Trump's own supporters.

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

In social media updates this past weekend, Vance asserted that a peace deal would have to establish a truce that honored Ukrainian independence, be agreeable to both sides, and prevent the war from resuming.

“Peace will not be made by failed negotiators or officials residing in a fantasy land,” he added. “It might be made by intelligent people operating in the real world.”

It was Vance who continued on the presentation of the peace plan in a conversation with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had primarily instructed his team with obtaining a signature on the peace deal before Thanksgiving this week in the United States.

The Secretary of State's Reaction and Internal Doubts

Vance's stance was a notably more enthusiastic endorsement of the proposal than that given by the secretary of state 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 standing.

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

But, his first response to the deal was tepid:

“Ending a complex and violent war such as the one in Ukraine demands an thorough discussion of substantive and pragmatic proposals,” Rubio stated recently. “And, achieving a durable ceasefire will necessitate both sides to consent to challenging but necessary concessions. This is the reason we are and will continue to develop a set of possible ideas for resolving this war drawing from feedback 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 stated last week at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had contacted legislators to explain that the deal was merely a preliminary proposal from the Russians and not an initiative pushed by the administration.

“The Secretary did make a call to us this day and I believe he emphasized to us that we are the recipients of a offer that was presented to one of our representatives,” said Rounds. “The document is not our recommendation, it is not our peace plan.”

Rubio moved quickly to fall in line. “This ceasefire plan was authored by the US,” he later wrote. “It is offered as a strong framework for continuing discussions. The proposal is based on input from the Russian side. But, it is additionally based on previous and current contributions from Ukraine.”