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America's Army Secretary, Dan Driscoll, emerged as an unlikely diplomat for the Trump administration newest proposal to resolve the Russian invasion in Ukraine. Driscoll's close relationship with Vice President Vance has positioned a key ally of the Euroskeptic vice-president at the forefront of Donald Trump latest push to settle the conflict.

Prior to his last week's trip to Kyiv, Driscoll was not known as a mediator or statesman, and his initial attempts to promote the agreement to officials in Europe were labeled chaotic.

Driscoll's strong ties with Vance, who he attended Yale and maintains a personal bond, indicate the resurgence of the non-interventionist VP in talks to end the Ukraine crisis.

The VP's Involvement in Peace Negotiations

It was Vance who intervened during Ukraine's president's rocky initial trip to the Trump White House in March and demanded he show Trump more respect. Now, Ukraine is once again pushing back against pressure from the US to agree to a swift settlement that Ukrainian leaders have called a surrender.

After a tumultuous first year in power, foreign policy actions in the White House are reportedly shaped by a small group of Trump's top advisers, such as chief of staff Susie Wiles, rightwing adviser Stephen Miller, envoy Steve Witkoff, State Department head Marco Rubio, and of course Vance.

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

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

Initial Attempts and European Reactions

Vance's initial efforts at negotiating a ceasefire agreement with Russia, while simultaneously seeking to restore ties with Moscow, were fruitless and left his team feeling frustrated with their Russian counterparts. European officials, in turn, were irritated by his initial speeches, in which he charged them of running from their constituents, who Vance said held restrictionist and right-leaning positions similar to those of Trump's own constituency.

However, the recently published ceasefire proposal closely resembled his positions, and he has been one of the most assertive advocates for the agreement in the government, even as the US has been criticized for endorsing a ceasefire plan that mostly resembles Vladimir Putin's extreme demands.

In posts this past weekend, Vance asserted that a ceasefire agreement would have to produce a ceasefire that respected Ukrainian sovereignty, be agreeable to each party, and prevent the conflict from resuming.

“Peace will not be made by failed negotiators or officials residing in a dream world,” he added. “It might be made by smart people operating in the real world.”

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

The Secretary of State's Response and Private Doubts

That was a notably more enthusiastic support of the proposal than that expressed by the secretary of state and national security adviser, Marco Rubio, a more traditional hawk in the administration who has transitioned from a shaky stature inside the administration to more stable footing.

Rubio was a member of a US delegation that went to Geneva this past weekend to meet with Ukrainian leaders to help refine the original 28-point ceasefire proposal in order to make it more acceptable to authorities in Kyiv.

However, his first reaction to the deal was tepid:

“Stopping a complex and deadly war such as the one in Ukraine requires an extensive discussion of substantive and realistic ideas,” Rubio stated over the weekend. “And, achieving a lasting peace will necessitate each party to consent to difficult but necessary compromises. This is the reason we are and will persist to create a list of possible solutions for resolving this conflict drawing from feedback from both sides of this conflict.”

Behind closed doors, he was reportedly 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 called legislators to explain that the agreement was merely a preliminary proposal from the Russians and not an plan advocated by the White House.

“Rubio did make a phone call to us this afternoon and I think he emphasized to us that we are the receivers of a offer that was presented to one of our officials,” stated Rounds. “The document is not our recommendation, it is not our ceasefire proposal.”

Rubio moved quickly to fall in line. “The peace proposal was authored by the US,” he later stated. “It is presented as a strong framework for ongoing negotiations. The proposal is derived from feedback from the Moscow. But, it is additionally informed by earlier and ongoing input from Ukraine.”