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America's Army Secretary, Daniel Driscoll, emerged as an surprising diplomat for the Trump administration newest proposal to end the conflict in Ukraine. Driscoll's close relationship with JD Vance has positioned a key ally of the Euroskeptic VP at the forefront of President Trump's recent push to settle the war.

Prior to his recent trip to Kyiv, Driscoll was not known as a negotiator or statesman, and his initial attempts to sell the deal to European policymakers were labeled chaotic.

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

The VP's Role in Peace Negotiations

This 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 resisting demands from the US to accept a swift settlement that local officials have described as a capitulation.

After a chaotic initial year in power, international decisions in the White House are said to be shaped by a handful of Trump's top advisers, including chief of staff Susie Wiles, conservative advisor Stephen Miller, diplomat Steve Witkoff, secretary of state Marco Rubio, and of course Vance.

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

“Every criticism of the ceasefire plan the White House is working on either misunderstands the proposal or misrepresents some critical situation on the ground,” the VP stated.

Initial Attempts and EU Reactions

Vance's early attempts at negotiating a peace deal with Russia, while simultaneously seeking to restore ties with Moscow, were unsuccessful and left his camp feeling disappointed with their Russian interlocutors. Leaders in Europe, meanwhile, were angered by his initial remarks, in which he accused them of ignoring their voters, who Vance claimed held anti-immigration and conservative positions similar to those of Trump's own supporters.

However, the new ceasefire proposal mirrored his stances, and he has been one of the most assertive spokespeople for the agreement in the government, even as the US has been under fire for endorsing a ceasefire plan that largely echoes Vladimir Putin's extreme demands.

In posts this weekend, Vance argued that a peace deal would have to establish a truce that honored Ukrainian independence, be acceptable to each party, and prevent the war from restarting.

“Peace will not be made by unsuccessful negotiators or politicians living in a fantasy land,” he continued. “An agreement could be made by smart people living in the real world.”

Additionally, it was Vance who followed up on the introduction of the peace plan in a conversation with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had primarily tasked his team with securing a signature on the peace deal before Thanksgiving this Thursday in the United States.

The Secretary of State's Response and Private Doubts

Vance's stance was a notably more enthusiastic support of the plan than that given by the top diplomat and security advisor, Marco Rubio, a more conventional hawk in the administration who has transitioned from a shaky position inside the administration to more firm standing.

Rubio was part of a US delegation that traveled to Geneva this past weekend to confer with Ukrainian leaders to help refine the initial 28-point peace plan in order to make it more acceptable to authorities in Kyiv.

But, his initial reaction to the agreement was lukewarm:

“Ending a complicated and deadly conflict such as the one in Ukraine demands an extensive exchange of serious and realistic ideas,” Rubio wrote over the weekend. “And, achieving a durable ceasefire will require each party to agree to difficult but essential concessions. That is why we are and will continue to create a list of potential ideas for ending this conflict drawing from input from both sides of this war.”

In private, he was said to be much more skeptical of the proposal. The Republican senator Mike Rounds said last week at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had contacted legislators to explain that the deal was merely a preliminary proposal from the Russians and not an initiative pushed by the White House.

“The Secretary made 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. “It is not our suggestion, it is not our peace plan.”

Rubio moved quickly to align himself. “This ceasefire plan was authored by the US,” he subsequently stated. “It is offered as a strong structure for ongoing discussions. It is derived from feedback from the Moscow. But, it is additionally based on previous and current contributions from Ukraine.”