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America's Secretary of the Army, Dan Driscoll, emerged as an surprising diplomat for the White House's latest initiative to resolve the conflict in Ukraine. His strong relationship with JD Vance has placed a key ally of the Euroskeptic VP at the forefront of Donald Trump latest effort to conclude the war.

Prior to his recent trip to Kyiv, Driscoll was unrecognized as a mediator or statesman, and his initial efforts to sell the deal to officials in Europe were labeled chaotic.

His close ties with Vance, who he studied and maintains a close friendship, indicate the resurgence of the non-interventionist vice-president in negotiations to resolve the Ukraine crisis.

The VP's Involvement in Peace Efforts

This was Vance who intervened during Ukraine's president's rocky initial trip to the Trump White House in March and insisted he show Trump more courtesy. Now, Ukraine is again resisting demands from the US to agree to a swift settlement that local officials have described as a surrender.

After a tumultuous first year in power, international actions in the White House are said to be shaped by a handful of Trump's top aides, including chief of staff Susie Wiles, conservative adviser Stephen Miller, diplomat Steve Witkoff, secretary of state Marco Rubio, and finally Vance.

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

“All objection of the ceasefire plan the administration is working on either misunderstands the proposal or misstates some key situation on the ground,” the VP wrote.

Early Efforts and European Responses

Vance's early attempts at hammering out a peace deal with Russia, while also seeking to renew ties with Moscow, were fruitless and left his team feeling disappointed with their Russian counterparts. European officials, in turn, were irritated by his initial remarks, in which he accused them of ignoring their constituents, who Vance said held anti-immigration and right-leaning positions close to those of Trump's own supporters.

However, the recently published ceasefire proposal closely resembled his positions, and he has been one of the most forceful spokespeople for the agreement in the administration, even as the US has been under fire for accepting a ceasefire plan that largely echoes Vladimir Putin's maximalist demands.

In social media updates this weekend, Vance asserted that a peace deal would have to produce a truce that respected Ukrainian independence, be acceptable to each party, and prevent the conflict from restarting.

“Peace will not be made by failed diplomats or officials residing in a fantasy land,” he continued. “It could be made by intelligent people living in the real world.”

Additionally, it was Vance who continued on the presentation of the ceasefire proposal in a phone call with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had mainly tasked his team with obtaining a agreement on the peace deal prior to Thanksgiving this week in the United States.

The Secretary of State's Reaction and Internal Concerns

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 traditional hawk in the administration who has transitioned from a shaky stature inside the White House to more firm standing.

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

But, his initial reaction to the deal was lukewarm:

“Stopping a complicated and violent conflict such as the one in Ukraine requires an thorough exchange of substantive and realistic proposals,” Rubio stated over the weekend. “And, achieving a lasting ceasefire will require each party to agree to challenging but essential compromises. This is the reason we are and will persist to create a list of potential solutions for resolving this conflict based on feedback from each party of this conflict.”

Behind closed doors, he was said to be much more skeptical of the plan. The Republican senator Mike Rounds stated recently at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had contacted lawmakers to clarify that the agreement was just a preliminary proposal from the Russians and not an initiative pushed by the White House.

“The Secretary made a phone call to us this day and I believe he made it very clear to us that we are the receivers of a offer that was presented to one of our representatives,” stated Rounds. “The document is not our suggestion, it is not our peace plan.”

Rubio acted swiftly to align himself. “This ceasefire plan was authored by the US,” he subsequently stated. “It is presented as a solid framework for continuing discussions. The proposal is based on input from the Moscow. But, it is additionally informed by earlier and current input from Ukraine.”