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The US Secretary of the Army, Dan Driscoll, emerged as an unlikely diplomat for the White House's newest initiative to end the Russian invasion in Ukraine. His strong connection with JD Vance has positioned a close associate of the Eurosceptic vice-president at the forefront of Donald Trump recent push to conclude the war.

Before his last week's trip to Kyiv, Driscoll was not known as a negotiator or statesman, and his initial efforts to sell the deal to European policymakers were described as chaotic.

His close ties with Vance, with whom he attended Yale and shares a personal bond, indicate the resurgence of the non-interventionist vice-president in talks to end the Ukraine war.

The VP's Role in Ceasefire 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 pressure from the US to accept a quick settlement that local officials have described as a capitulation.

Following a chaotic first year in power, foreign policy decisions in the White House are reportedly influenced by a small group of Trump's top aides, including top aide Susie Wiles, conservative advisor Stephen Miller, diplomat Steve Witkoff, State Department head Marco Rubio, and of course Vance.

Vance has been a vocal advocate of the recent plan, which was crafted by Witkoff and Trump's relative Jared Kushner, alongside the Russian diplomat Kirill Dmitriev.

“All objection of the ceasefire plan the administration is working on either misinterprets the proposal or misrepresents some key reality on the ground,” Vance wrote.

Early Attempts and EU Responses

Vance's early attempts at negotiating a peace deal with Russia, while also attempting to restore relations with Moscow, were fruitless and left his team feeling frustrated with their Russian counterparts. European officials, in turn, were angered by his initial remarks, in which he charged them of running from their voters, who Vance said held restrictionist and conservative positions close to those of Trump's own supporters.

But, the recently published peace deal closely resembled his positions, and he has been one of the most assertive spokespeople for the agreement in the administration, even as the US has been under fire for endorsing a ceasefire plan that mostly resembles Vladimir Putin's extreme terms.

In posts this weekend, Vance asserted that a ceasefire agreement would have to establish a ceasefire that respected Ukrainian sovereignty, be agreeable to both sides, and stop the war from restarting.

“Peace won’t be made by unsuccessful negotiators or officials living in a fantasy land,” he added. “An agreement could be made by smart people operating in the actual situation.”

Additionally, it was Vance who followed up on the introduction of the ceasefire proposal in a phone call with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had primarily tasked his team with securing a agreement on the ceasefire accord prior to Thanksgiving this week in the United States.

The Secretary of State's Response and Internal Concerns

Vance's stance was a distinctly more enthusiastic support of the plan than that given by the secretary of state and security advisor, Marco Rubio, a more conventional hardliner in the government who has transitioned from a uncertain position inside the White House to more stable standing.

Rubio was a member of a US team that went to Geneva this past weekend to confer with Ukrainian leaders to help moderate the original 28-point peace plan in order to make it more palatable to leaders in Kyiv.

But, his first reaction to the deal was tepid:

“Ending a complicated and violent conflict such as the one in Ukraine demands an extensive exchange of substantive and realistic ideas,” Rubio stated over the weekend. “And, securing a lasting peace will necessitate both sides to consent to difficult but essential compromises. That is why we are and will persist to develop a set of potential ideas for ending this war drawing from feedback from both sides of this war.”

Behind closed doors, he was said to be much more skeptical of the plan. The Republican senator Mike Rounds stated last week at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had called lawmakers to explain that the deal was merely a preliminary proposal from the Russians and not an plan pushed by the White House.

“Rubio made a call to us this day and I believe he made it very clear to us that we are the receivers of a proposal that was delivered to one of our representatives,” said Rounds. “The document is not our recommendation, it is not our peace plan.”

Rubio moved quickly to align himself. “The peace proposal was written by the US,” he later stated. “The framework is presented as a solid structure for ongoing negotiations. It is derived from input from the Moscow. However, it is also based on earlier and ongoing input from Ukraine.”