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The US Army Secretary, Dan Driscoll, was an surprising diplomat for the White House's latest initiative to end the conflict in Ukraine. Driscoll's strong connection with Vice President Vance has placed a key ally of the Eurosceptic VP at the forefront of President Trump's latest push 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 promote the deal to European policymakers were described as chaotic.

His close ties with Vance, with whom he studied and maintains a personal bond, signal the rising influence of the non-interventionist VP in negotiations to end the Ukraine war.

Vance's Role in Peace Negotiations

This was Vance who stepped in during Volodymyr Zelenskyy rocky initial visit to the White House in March and insisted he show Trump more respect. Currently, Ukraine is again pushing back against demands from the US to accept a quick settlement that local officials have described as a capitulation.

After a chaotic initial year in office, international decisions in the White House are reportedly shaped by a handful of Trump's key aides, including chief of staff Susie Wiles, rightwing advisor Stephen Miller, diplomat Steve Witkoff, secretary of state Marco Rubio, and of course Vance.

Vance has been a vocal advocate of the latest plan, which was crafted by Witkoff and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, together with the Kremlin envoy Kirill Dmitriev.

“Every objection of the peace framework the administration is working on either misunderstands the proposal or misstates some critical reality on the ground,” the VP wrote.

Initial Efforts and EU Responses

Vance's initial efforts at negotiating a peace deal with Russia, while simultaneously attempting to restore ties with Moscow, were fruitless and left his camp feeling disappointed with their Russian counterparts. Leaders in Europe, meanwhile, were irritated by his early speeches, in which he charged them of ignoring their voters, who Vance claimed held restrictionist and right-leaning positions similar to those of Trump's own constituency.

But, the recently published peace deal closely resembled his stances, and he has been one of the most assertive spokespeople for the deal in the government, even as the US has been under fire for accepting a peace framework that largely echoes Vladimir Putin's maximalist terms.

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

“Peace will not be made by failed negotiators or officials residing in a fantasy land,” he continued. “An agreement could be made by intelligent people operating in the actual situation.”

It was Vance who followed up on the introduction of the ceasefire proposal in a conversation with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had primarily instructed his staff with securing a signature on the peace deal before Thanksgiving this Thursday in the United States.

The Secretary of State's Reaction and Internal Doubts

That was a notably more enthusiastic support of the plan than that given by the secretary of state and security advisor, Marco Rubio, a more traditional hawk in the administration who has transitioned from a uncertain stature inside the White House to more firm standing.

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

However, his first response to the deal was lukewarm:

“Ending a complex and violent war such as the one in Ukraine demands an thorough discussion of substantive and realistic proposals,” Rubio stated recently. “And, securing a durable peace will require each party to agree to difficult but essential concessions. That is why we are and will persist to develop a set of possible ideas for resolving this war drawing from feedback from each party of this war.”

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

“Rubio did make a call to us this day and I believe he emphasized to us that we are the receivers of a proposal that was presented to one of our officials,” said Rounds. “The document is not our suggestion, it is not our peace plan.”

Rubio acted swiftly to align himself. “This ceasefire plan was written by the US,” he later stated. “The framework is presented as a solid framework for continuing negotiations. The proposal is based on feedback from the Russian side. But, it is additionally based on earlier and ongoing contributions from Ukraine.”