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America's Army Secretary, Dan Driscoll, was an unlikely envoy for the White House's newest initiative to resolve the conflict in Ukraine. His close relationship with JD Vance has placed a close associate of the Eurosceptic vice-president at the forefront of Donald Trump latest effort to settle the war.

Prior to his last week's trip to Kyiv, Driscoll was not known as a negotiator or diplomat, and his initial efforts to sell the agreement to officials in Europe were labeled turbulent.

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

The VP's Role in Ceasefire Efforts

This was Vance who stepped in during Ukraine's president's rocky initial visit to the Trump White House in March and demanded he show Trump more respect. Now, Ukraine is again pushing back against demands from the US to agree to a quick settlement that Ukrainian leaders have called a capitulation.

After a tumultuous first year in office, foreign policy actions in the White House are said to be shaped by a small group of Trump's key advisers, such as top aide Susie Wiles, rightwing advisor Stephen Miller, diplomat Steve Witkoff, State Department head Marco Rubio, and of course Vance.

Vance has been a vocal advocate of the recent plan, 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 developing either misunderstands the framework or misrepresents some key reality on the ground,” the VP wrote.

Early Efforts and European Reactions

Vance's early attempts at hammering out a ceasefire agreement with Russia, while also seeking to restore relations with Moscow, were unsuccessful and left his team feeling frustrated with their Russian counterparts. European officials, meanwhile, were angered by his initial speeches, in which he charged them of running from their constituents, who Vance claimed held anti-immigration and conservative views close to those of Trump's own supporters.

However, the new peace deal closely resembled his stances, and he has been one of the most forceful advocates for the agreement in the administration, even as the US has been under fire for accepting a peace framework that mostly resembles Vladimir Putin's extreme terms.

In social media updates this weekend, Vance asserted that a peace deal would have to establish a ceasefire that respected Ukrainian independence, be acceptable to both sides, and stop the war from restarting.

“A ceasefire won’t be made by failed diplomats or officials living in a fantasy land,” he added. “An agreement might be made by smart people operating in the actual situation.”

It was Vance who followed up on the introduction of the peace plan in a conversation with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had primarily tasked his staff with securing a agreement on the peace deal prior to Thanksgiving this Thursday in the United States.

The Secretary of State's Response and Internal Doubts

That was a distinctly more enthusiastic endorsement of the plan than that given by the secretary of state and national security adviser, Marco Rubio, a more conventional hardliner in the administration who has gone from a uncertain position inside the White House to more firm footing.

Rubio was a member of a US team that traveled to Geneva this weekend to confer with Ukrainian officials to help moderate the initial 28-point ceasefire proposal in order to make it more palatable to authorities in Kyiv.

However, his initial response to the agreement was lukewarm:

“Ending a complex and deadly war such as the one in Ukraine requires an thorough discussion of serious and realistic proposals,” Rubio stated recently. “And, achieving a durable ceasefire will require both sides to agree to difficult but essential compromises. This is the reason we are and will continue to create a list of possible solutions for resolving this war drawing from input from both sides of this war.”

In private, 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 called legislators to clarify that the agreement was just a preliminary proposal from the Russians and not an plan advocated by the administration.

“Rubio did make a phone call to us this day 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 representatives,” stated Rounds. “The document is not our recommendation, it is not our peace plan.”

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