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America's Army Secretary, Dan Driscoll, was an unlikely envoy for the White House's latest initiative to end the Russian invasion in Ukraine. His strong connection with JD Vance has positioned a key ally of the Eurosceptic vice-president at the forefront of President Trump's recent effort to settle the war.

Before his last week's visit to Kyiv, Driscoll was not known as a negotiator or statesman, and his early attempts to sell the agreement to officials in Europe were labeled turbulent.

His strong ties with Vance, with whom he studied and shares a close friendship, signal the rising influence of the non-interventionist VP in talks to end the Ukraine crisis.

Vance's Involvement in Ceasefire Negotiations

This was Vance who intervened during Ukraine's president's rocky first visit to the Trump White House in March and demanded he show Trump more courtesy. Now, Ukraine is again resisting demands from the US to accept a swift deal that Ukrainian leaders have described as a surrender.

Following a chaotic initial year in office, international decisions in the White House are said to be shaped by a handful of Trump's top advisers, including top aide Susie Wiles, conservative adviser Stephen Miller, diplomat Steve Witkoff, State Department head Marco Rubio, and finally Vance.

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

“All objection of the peace framework the administration is working on either misinterprets the framework or misstates some critical reality on the ground,” Vance stated.

Initial Attempts and EU Reactions

Vance's early attempts at hammering out a ceasefire agreement with Russia, while also attempting to renew ties with Moscow, were fruitless and left his camp feeling frustrated with their Russian counterparts. Leaders in Europe, in turn, were angered by his initial speeches, in which he charged them of ignoring their constituents, who Vance said held restrictionist and right-leaning positions close 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 deal in the administration, even as the US has been criticized for endorsing a peace framework that mostly echoes Vladimir Putin's extreme terms.

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

“A ceasefire will not be made by unsuccessful diplomats or politicians residing in a fantasy land,” he continued. “It might be made by smart people living in the actual situation.”

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

The Secretary of State's Reaction and Private Doubts

That was a notably more full-throated endorsement of the proposal than that given by the top diplomat and national security adviser, Marco Rubio, a more traditional hardliner in the administration who has transitioned from a shaky position inside the administration to more stable standing.

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

But, his first response to the deal was lukewarm:

“Stopping a complicated and deadly war such as the one in Ukraine demands an thorough exchange of substantive and realistic ideas,” Rubio stated recently. “And, securing a durable ceasefire will require each party to consent to difficult but essential concessions. This is the reason we are and will persist to develop a list of potential solutions for ending this conflict drawing from feedback from each party of this war.”

In private, he was reportedly much more doubtful of the proposal. The GOP lawmaker Mike Rounds said last week at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had contacted legislators to clarify that the agreement was just a initial proposal from the Russians and not an initiative advocated by the administration.

“Rubio did make a call to us this day and I believe he emphasized to us that we are the recipients of a offer that was presented to one of our representatives,” stated 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 subsequently wrote. “It is presented as a strong framework for continuing negotiations. The proposal is derived from feedback from the Russian side. But, it is also informed by previous and ongoing input from Ukraine.”