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The US Army Secretary, Dan Driscoll, was an unlikely envoy for the White House's latest proposal to end the Russian invasion in Ukraine. Driscoll's close relationship with Vice President Vance has placed a close associate of the Eurosceptic VP at the center of Donald Trump latest effort to settle the war.

Prior to his last week's visit to Kyiv, Driscoll was not known as a mediator or diplomat, and his early efforts to promote the deal to European policymakers were described as turbulent.

His close ties with Vance, with whom he studied and maintains a personal bond, indicate the resurgence of the non-interventionist vice-president in talks to end the Ukraine crisis.

The VP's Role in Peace Efforts

This was Vance who intervened during Volodymyr Zelenskyy rocky first trip to the Trump White House in March and insisted he show Trump more courtesy. Currently, Ukraine is again pushing back against demands from the US to agree to a swift deal that Ukrainian leaders have called a capitulation.

After a chaotic initial year in office, foreign policy decisions in the White House are said to be influenced by a small group of Trump's top aides, including top aide Susie Wiles, rightwing adviser Stephen Miller, diplomat Steve Witkoff, State Department head Marco Rubio, and of course Vance.

Vance has been a outspoken advocate of the recent proposal, which was developed by Witkoff and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, together with the Kremlin envoy Kirill Dmitriev.

“Every objection of the peace framework the White House is developing either misinterprets the proposal or misstates some key situation on the ground,” Vance wrote.

Early Efforts and EU Reactions

Vance's initial attempts at hammering out a ceasefire agreement with Russia, while also attempting to renew relations with Moscow, were unsuccessful and left his camp feeling disappointed with their Russian counterparts. Leaders in Europe, in turn, were angered by his initial speeches, in which he charged them of ignoring their constituents, who Vance claimed held anti-immigration and right-leaning views 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 deal in the administration, even as the US has been under fire for accepting a peace framework that mostly echoes Vladimir Putin's maximalist demands.

In posts this past weekend, Vance argued that a peace deal would have to establish a truce that honored Ukrainian independence, be agreeable to both sides, and stop the war from restarting.

“Peace will not be made by unsuccessful 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 introduction of the peace plan in a phone call with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had primarily instructed his staff with securing a agreement on the ceasefire accord prior to Thanksgiving this week in the United States.

Rubio's Reaction and Private Concerns

Vance's stance was a distinctly more full-throated support of the plan than that given by the top diplomat and security advisor, Marco Rubio, a more conventional hardliner in the administration who has transitioned from a uncertain position inside the White House to more firm footing.

Rubio was part of a US delegation that went to Geneva this past weekend to meet with Ukrainian leaders to help refine the original 28-point peace plan in order to make it more palatable to leaders in Kyiv.

However, his initial response to the deal was tepid:

“Stopping a complex and violent conflict such as the one in Ukraine requires an thorough discussion of substantive and realistic ideas,” Rubio wrote over the weekend. “And, achieving a lasting ceasefire will require each party to consent to challenging but necessary compromises. That is why we are and will continue to create a set of possible solutions for ending this conflict drawing from feedback from each party of this conflict.”

In private, he was said to be much more doubtful of the proposal. The GOP lawmaker Mike Rounds said recently at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had contacted legislators to explain that the deal was just a preliminary offer from the Russians and not an plan advocated by the White House.

“The Secretary did make a call to us this afternoon and I believe 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. “It is not our recommendation, it is not our ceasefire proposal.”

Rubio acted swiftly to fall in line. “This ceasefire plan was authored by the US,” he later wrote. “The framework is offered 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.”