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America's Army Secretary, Dan Driscoll, was an surprising diplomat for the White House's latest initiative to resolve the Russian invasion in Ukraine. Driscoll's strong connection with Vice President Vance has positioned a close associate of the Euroskeptic vice-president at the center of President Trump's recent push to conclude the conflict.

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

His strong ties with Vance, with whom he studied and maintains a personal bond, signal the rising influence of the isolationist vice-president in talks to end the Ukraine war.

The VP's Involvement in Peace Efforts

This was Vance who intervened during Volodymyr Zelenskyy disastrous first trip to the Trump White House in March and insisted he show Trump more courtesy. Now, Ukraine is once again resisting pressure from the US to agree to a quick deal that local officials have called a surrender.

Following a tumultuous first year in power, foreign policy decisions in the White House are said to be shaped by a small group of Trump's top advisers, including top aide Susie Wiles, rightwing advisor Stephen Miller, envoy Steve Witkoff, State Department head Marco Rubio, and finally Vance.

Vance has been a vocal 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 peace framework the White House is developing either misinterprets the proposal or misrepresents some key situation on the ground,” the VP wrote.

Early Efforts and European Reactions

Vance's initial attempts at hammering out a peace deal with Russia, while simultaneously seeking to renew ties with Moscow, were unsuccessful and left his camp feeling disappointed with their Russian interlocutors. Leaders in Europe, in turn, were angered by his early speeches, in which he accused them of ignoring their constituents, who Vance claimed held restrictionist and right-leaning positions similar to those of Trump's own supporters.

But, the recently published peace deal mirrored his positions, and he has been one of the most forceful spokespeople for the deal in the administration, even as the US has been under fire for accepting a peace framework that mostly echoes Vladimir Putin's maximalist terms.

In posts this past weekend, Vance argued that a peace deal would have to produce a truce that respected Ukrainian sovereignty, be acceptable to both sides, and stop the conflict from resuming.

“A ceasefire won’t be made by failed diplomats or officials residing in a dream world,” he continued. “An agreement might be made by intelligent people operating in the real world.”

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

The Secretary of State's Reaction and Private Concerns

Vance's stance was a notably more enthusiastic support of the plan than that expressed by the top diplomat and national security adviser, Marco Rubio, a more conventional hardliner in the government who has gone from a uncertain stature inside the administration to more stable standing.

Rubio was part of a US delegation that traveled 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 initial response to the agreement was lukewarm:

“Stopping a complicated and violent war such as the one in Ukraine demands an extensive discussion of serious and realistic ideas,” Rubio wrote recently. “Furthermore, achieving a durable ceasefire will require each party to consent to challenging but essential compromises. That is why we are and will persist to create a set of possible solutions for ending this war based on input from both sides of this conflict.”

Behind closed doors, he was reportedly much more skeptical of the plan. The GOP lawmaker Mike Rounds said recently at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had contacted legislators to explain that the agreement was just a preliminary proposal from the Russians and not an plan pushed by the White House.

“The Secretary made a phone call to us this afternoon and I believe 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 align himself. “This ceasefire plan was authored by the US,” he subsequently wrote. “The framework is presented as a solid structure for ongoing discussions. It is based on feedback from the Moscow. However, it is additionally based on previous and current input from Ukraine.”