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America's Army Secretary, Dan Driscoll, emerged as an surprising diplomat for the Trump administration latest initiative to resolve the conflict in Ukraine. His close relationship with Vice President Vance has placed a key ally of the Euroskeptic VP at the center of President Trump's latest push to conclude the war.

Prior to his last week's visit to Kyiv, Driscoll was unrecognized as a negotiator or diplomat, and his initial efforts to promote the agreement to European policymakers were described as turbulent.

Driscoll's close relationship with Vance, who he studied and maintains a close friendship, signal the resurgence of the isolationist vice-president in talks to resolve the Ukraine war.

The VP's Role in Peace Negotiations

This was Vance who stepped in during Volodymyr Zelenskyy rocky initial visit to the White House in March and insisted he show Trump more courtesy. Currently, Ukraine is again pushing back against pressure from the US to accept a swift deal that Ukrainian leaders have described as a surrender.

After a tumultuous first year in power, international decisions in the White House are said to be influenced by a handful of Trump's key advisers, such as chief of staff Susie Wiles, conservative advisor Stephen Miller, envoy Steve Witkoff, secretary of state Marco Rubio, and of course Vance.

Vance has been a outspoken supporter of the recent plan, which was developed by Witkoff and Trump's relative Jared Kushner, together with the Russian diplomat Kirill Dmitriev.

“Every objection of the ceasefire plan the White House is developing either misinterprets the framework or misrepresents some key situation on the ground,” the VP stated.

Early Attempts and EU Responses

Vance's early efforts at hammering out a ceasefire agreement with Russia, while also seeking to restore relations with Moscow, were unsuccessful 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 ignoring their voters, who Vance said 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 advocates for the deal in the government, even as the US has been under fire for accepting a peace framework that mostly echoes Vladimir Putin's extreme terms.

In posts this weekend, Vance argued that a ceasefire agreement would have to produce a ceasefire that respected Ukrainian sovereignty, be acceptable to each party, and prevent the war from restarting.

“Peace will not be made by unsuccessful negotiators or politicians residing in a fantasy land,” he added. “An agreement might be made by smart people living in the actual situation.”

It was Vance who followed up on the introduction of the ceasefire proposal in a conversation with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had mainly tasked his staff with securing a signature on the peace deal prior to Thanksgiving this Thursday in the United States.

The Secretary of State's Response and Internal Doubts

Vance's stance was a distinctly more full-throated endorsement of the proposal than that expressed by the secretary of state and security advisor, Marco Rubio, a more traditional hardliner in the government who has gone from a uncertain stature inside the administration to more firm standing.

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

But, his first reaction to the agreement was tepid:

“Ending a complicated and violent conflict such as the one in Ukraine demands an thorough exchange of serious and pragmatic proposals,” Rubio stated over the weekend. “Furthermore, achieving a durable ceasefire will require each party to consent to difficult but essential concessions. That is why we are and will persist to develop a list of potential solutions for ending this conflict based on input from both sides of this conflict.”

In private, 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 contacted legislators to clarify that the agreement was merely a preliminary offer from the Russians and not an initiative pushed by the White House.

“Rubio made a phone call to us this afternoon and I think he emphasized to us that we are the receivers of a offer that was delivered to one of our representatives,” said Rounds. “The document is not our recommendation, it is not our peace plan.”

Rubio acted swiftly to fall in line. “This ceasefire plan was authored by the US,” he subsequently wrote. “The framework is offered as a solid structure for continuing discussions. It is derived from input from the Russian side. But, it is additionally based on previous and ongoing input from Ukraine.”