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America's Army Secretary, Dan Driscoll, emerged as an unlikely envoy for the White House's newest proposal to resolve the Russian invasion in Ukraine. His strong connection with JD Vance has placed a key ally of the Euroskeptic vice-president at the forefront of President Trump's latest effort to settle the war.

Prior to his last week's visit to Kyiv, Driscoll was not known as a negotiator or diplomat, and his initial attempts to sell the agreement to officials in Europe were labeled chaotic.

His strong relationship with Vance, with whom he attended Yale and maintains a personal bond, indicate the rising influence of the isolationist vice-president in negotiations to resolve the Ukraine war.

Vance's Role in Ceasefire Efforts

It was Vance who intervened during Ukraine's president's disastrous initial trip to the Trump White House in March and insisted he show Trump more courtesy. Now, Ukraine is again resisting demands from the US to accept a quick settlement that local officials have described as a capitulation.

After a chaotic first year in office, international actions in the White House are said to be influenced by a small group of Trump's key advisers, such as top aide Susie Wiles, conservative adviser Stephen Miller, diplomat Steve Witkoff, secretary of state Marco Rubio, and finally Vance.

Vance has been a vocal supporter of the latest plan, which was developed by Witkoff and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, alongside the Russian diplomat Kirill Dmitriev.

“All criticism of the peace framework the White House is developing either misinterprets the framework or misstates some critical reality on the ground,” the VP stated.

Early Attempts and EU Reactions

Vance's early efforts at hammering out a ceasefire agreement with Russia, while also seeking to renew ties with Moscow, were fruitless and left his team feeling disappointed with their Russian interlocutors. European officials, in turn, were irritated by his initial remarks, in which he charged them of running from their voters, who Vance said held restrictionist and right-leaning positions close to those of Trump's own supporters.

But, the new peace deal mirrored his stances, and he has been one of the most forceful spokespeople for the agreement in the government, even as the US has been criticized for accepting a ceasefire plan 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 ceasefire that respected Ukrainian independence, be acceptable to each party, and stop the conflict from resuming.

“Peace will not be made by failed diplomats or politicians residing in a fantasy land,” he added. “An agreement could 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 mainly instructed his staff with obtaining a agreement on the ceasefire accord before Thanksgiving this week in the United States.

Rubio's Response and Internal Doubts

That was a distinctly more full-throated support of the plan than that given by the secretary of state and national security adviser, Marco Rubio, a more conventional hawk in the administration who has gone from a shaky position inside the White House to more firm footing.

Rubio was a member of a US team that went to Geneva this weekend to confer with Ukrainian officials to help refine the original 28-point ceasefire proposal in order to make it more palatable to authorities in Kyiv.

But, his first response to the deal was tepid:

“Stopping a complicated and deadly war such as the one in Ukraine requires an extensive exchange of substantive and realistic proposals,” Rubio wrote over the weekend. “And, achieving a lasting peace will require both sides to consent to challenging but necessary concessions. That is why we are and will persist to develop a list of possible solutions for resolving this war drawing from feedback from both sides of this conflict.”

In private, he was said to be much more skeptical of the proposal. The Republican senator Mike Rounds stated recently at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had called legislators to clarify that the agreement was just a initial offer from the Russians and not an plan pushed by the administration.

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

Rubio moved quickly to align himself. “This ceasefire plan was written by the US,” he later stated. “The framework is offered as a solid framework for ongoing negotiations. The proposal is based on feedback from the Russian side. But, it is also based on earlier and current input from Ukraine.”