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America's Secretary of the Army, Dan Driscoll, was an unlikely envoy for the White House's newest initiative to resolve the conflict in Ukraine. His strong relationship with JD Vance has positioned a close associate of the Euroskeptic VP at the forefront of Donald Trump recent effort to settle the war.

Before his recent visit to Kyiv, Driscoll was unrecognized as a mediator or statesman, and his early attempts to promote the deal to European policymakers were labeled turbulent.

His close ties with Vance, with whom he attended Yale and shares a personal bond, signal the resurgence of the isolationist vice-president in talks to resolve the Ukraine war.

Vance's Involvement in Peace Negotiations

It was Vance who intervened during Volodymyr Zelenskyy rocky initial trip to the White House in March and demanded he show Trump more respect. Currently, Ukraine is again resisting pressure from the US to accept a quick settlement that local officials have described as a surrender.

Following a tumultuous first year in power, foreign policy actions in the White House are reportedly influenced by a small group of Trump's key advisers, including chief of staff Susie Wiles, rightwing adviser Stephen Miller, diplomat Steve Witkoff, secretary of state Marco Rubio, and finally Vance.

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

“All objection of the peace framework the administration is working on either misunderstands the proposal or misstates some key reality on the ground,” the VP wrote.

Early Efforts and EU Reactions

Vance's initial efforts at hammering out a ceasefire agreement with Russia, while simultaneously seeking to restore ties with Moscow, were unsuccessful and left his camp feeling frustrated with their Russian counterparts. Leaders in Europe, meanwhile, were angered by his initial remarks, in which he charged them of ignoring their constituents, who Vance said held anti-immigration and right-leaning views similar to those of Trump's own constituency.

However, the new ceasefire proposal mirrored his stances, 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 accepting a peace framework that largely resembles Vladimir Putin's maximalist demands.

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

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

It was Vance who followed up on the presentation of the ceasefire proposal in a phone call with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had primarily tasked his team with obtaining a agreement on the peace deal prior to Thanksgiving this week in the United States.

Rubio's Response and Internal Doubts

That was a notably more enthusiastic endorsement 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 shaky position inside the administration to more firm footing.

Rubio was part of a US team that went to Geneva this past weekend to meet with Ukrainian officials to help moderate the initial 28-point ceasefire proposal in order to make it more palatable to authorities in Kyiv.

However, his first reaction to the deal was tepid:

“Stopping a complicated and violent war such as the one in Ukraine demands an extensive discussion of substantive and pragmatic ideas,” Rubio wrote over the weekend. “And, securing a lasting ceasefire will require both sides to consent to challenging but essential compromises. That is why we are and will persist to develop a list of potential solutions for ending this conflict drawing from feedback from both sides of this conflict.”

Behind closed doors, he was said to be much more skeptical of the plan. The Republican senator 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 just a preliminary offer from the Russians and not an initiative advocated by the White House.

“Rubio made a phone call to us this day and I think he emphasized to us that we are the recipients of a offer that was delivered to one of our officials,” 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 subsequently stated. “The framework is presented as a strong structure for continuing negotiations. The proposal is derived from input from the Moscow. But, it is also informed by previous and current contributions from Ukraine.”