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America's Army Secretary, Daniel Driscoll, was an unlikely envoy for the Trump administration latest proposal to end the conflict in Ukraine. Driscoll's close connection with Vice President Vance has placed a close associate of the Euroskeptic VP at the forefront of President Trump's latest effort to conclude the war.

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

His close ties with Vance, who he studied and shares a close friendship, indicate the rising influence of the isolationist vice-president in negotiations to resolve the Ukraine crisis.

The VP's Role in Peace Negotiations

It was Vance who intervened during Ukraine's president's disastrous first trip to the White House in March and demanded he show Trump more respect. Now, Ukraine is again pushing back against pressure from the US to agree to a quick settlement that Ukrainian leaders have called a capitulation.

After a chaotic initial year in office, foreign policy decisions in the White House are reportedly influenced by a handful of Trump's top aides, including top aide Susie Wiles, conservative adviser Stephen Miller, envoy Steve Witkoff, State Department head Marco Rubio, and of course Vance.

Vance has been a vocal supporter of the recent proposal, which was crafted by Witkoff and Trump's son-in-law 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 misrepresents some key situation on the ground,” Vance wrote.

Initial Attempts and European Reactions

Vance's early efforts at hammering out a peace deal with Russia, while simultaneously seeking to renew ties with Moscow, were fruitless and left his team feeling frustrated with their Russian counterparts. European officials, meanwhile, were angered by his early speeches, in which he accused them of ignoring their constituents, who Vance claimed held restrictionist and right-leaning positions close to those of Trump's own constituency.

However, the recently published peace deal mirrored his positions, 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 endorsing a peace framework that largely echoes Vladimir Putin's extreme terms.

In posts this weekend, Vance argued that a peace deal would have to establish a truce that honored Ukrainian sovereignty, be acceptable to both sides, and prevent the conflict from resuming.

“Peace won’t be made by unsuccessful negotiators or politicians residing in a fantasy land,” he added. “An agreement could be made by smart people operating in the actual situation.”

Additionally, it was Vance who continued on the presentation of the peace plan in a conversation with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had mainly tasked his staff with securing a signature on the peace deal prior to Thanksgiving this Thursday in the United States.

The Secretary of State's Response and Private Concerns

Vance's stance was a distinctly more full-throated endorsement of the proposal than that expressed 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 stable footing.

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

But, his first reaction to the deal was lukewarm:

“Ending a complex and violent conflict such as the one in Ukraine demands an thorough discussion of serious and realistic proposals,” Rubio stated over the weekend. “And, achieving a durable ceasefire will necessitate both sides to agree to challenging but essential compromises. This is the reason we are and will persist to develop a list of possible ideas for resolving this war based on input from both sides of this war.”

In private, he was said to be much more skeptical 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 deal was just a initial offer from the Russians and not an initiative advocated by the administration.

“The Secretary made a call to us this day and I believe he made it very clear to us that we are the recipients of a offer that was presented to one of our representatives,” said Rounds. “It is not our recommendation, it is not our ceasefire proposal.”

Rubio moved quickly to align himself. “The peace proposal was authored by the US,” he later stated. “The framework is offered as a strong framework for continuing discussions. The proposal is derived from feedback from the Moscow. But, it is additionally informed by earlier and current contributions from Ukraine.”