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America's Army Secretary, Daniel Driscoll, was an unlikely diplomat for the Trump administration newest proposal to end the Russian invasion in Ukraine. His close connection with Vice President Vance has placed a close associate of the Euroskeptic VP at the center of Donald Trump latest push to conclude the conflict.

Before his recent trip to Kyiv, Driscoll was unrecognized as a negotiator or statesman, and his early efforts to promote the deal to European policymakers were described as turbulent.

His strong relationship with Vance, who he attended Yale and maintains a close friendship, indicate the rising influence of the isolationist vice-president in negotiations to end the Ukraine crisis.

The VP's Involvement in Peace Efforts

It was Vance who stepped in during Ukraine's president's disastrous initial visit to the Trump White House in March and demanded he show Trump more respect. Currently, Ukraine is again pushing back against pressure from the US to agree to a swift deal that Ukrainian leaders have called a capitulation.

Following a tumultuous initial year in office, foreign policy decisions in the White House are said to be influenced by a handful of Trump's key advisers, including top aide Susie Wiles, rightwing adviser Stephen Miller, diplomat Steve Witkoff, secretary of state Marco Rubio, and finally Vance.

Vance has been a vocal supporter of the latest proposal, which was crafted by Witkoff and Trump's relative Jared Kushner, alongside the Kremlin envoy Kirill Dmitriev.

“All criticism of the peace framework the White House is working on either misinterprets the proposal or misstates some critical situation on the ground,” the VP wrote.

Early Attempts and EU Reactions

Vance's initial attempts at negotiating a ceasefire agreement with Russia, while simultaneously attempting to restore ties with Moscow, were fruitless and left his team feeling disappointed with their Russian counterparts. European officials, meanwhile, were irritated by his initial speeches, in which he charged them of ignoring their constituents, who Vance said held anti-immigration and conservative positions similar to those of Trump's own constituency.

But, the new peace deal closely resembled his stances, and he has been one of the most assertive spokespeople for the agreement in the government, even as the US has been criticized for accepting a peace framework that mostly echoes Vladimir Putin's extreme demands.

In social media updates this weekend, Vance asserted that a peace deal would have to produce a truce that respected Ukrainian sovereignty, be acceptable to each party, and prevent the conflict from restarting.

“Peace won’t be made by unsuccessful diplomats or politicians living in a fantasy land,” he continued. “An agreement might be made by smart people operating in the actual situation.”

It was Vance who continued on the presentation of the ceasefire proposal in a conversation with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had primarily instructed his staff with securing a agreement on the ceasefire accord before Thanksgiving this week in the United States.

The Secretary of State's Response and Internal Concerns

Vance's stance was a notably more enthusiastic support of the plan than that given by the secretary of state and security advisor, Marco Rubio, a more conventional hawk in the administration who has transitioned from a uncertain position inside the administration to more stable footing.

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

But, his first reaction to the deal was lukewarm:

“Ending a complicated and violent conflict such as the one in Ukraine demands an thorough discussion of substantive and realistic ideas,” Rubio stated over the weekend. “And, achieving a durable peace will require each party to agree to challenging but necessary compromises. This is the reason we are and will persist to develop a set of possible solutions for ending this war drawing from input from both sides of this conflict.”

Behind closed doors, he was reportedly much more skeptical of the proposal. The GOP lawmaker Mike Rounds said last week at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had contacted lawmakers to explain that the deal was merely a preliminary offer from the Russians and not an initiative pushed by the White House.

“Rubio did make a call to us this afternoon and I think he made it very clear to us that we are the recipients of a proposal that was presented to one of our officials,” said Rounds. “The document is not our recommendation, it is not our ceasefire proposal.”

Rubio moved quickly to align himself. “This ceasefire plan was authored by the US,” he later wrote. “The framework is offered as a strong structure for continuing discussions. The proposal is derived from feedback from the Russian side. But, it is also based on earlier and current input from Ukraine.”