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The US Secretary of the Army, Dan Driscoll, emerged as an unlikely envoy for the White House's newest proposal to resolve the conflict in Ukraine. His close connection with Vice President Vance has placed a key ally of the Eurosceptic VP at the center of Donald Trump latest push to settle the war.

Before his last week's trip to Kyiv, Driscoll was not known as a negotiator or statesman, and his early attempts to sell the agreement to European policymakers were described as chaotic.

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

Vance's Role in Ceasefire Efforts

This was Vance who stepped in during Volodymyr Zelenskyy disastrous first visit to the White House in March and demanded he show Trump more courtesy. Now, Ukraine is once again resisting pressure from the US to accept a quick deal that Ukrainian leaders have described as a surrender.

Following a chaotic initial year in office, foreign policy decisions in the White House are reportedly influenced 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 outspoken supporter of the latest proposal, which was developed by Witkoff and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, together with the Russian diplomat Kirill Dmitriev.

“All objection of the ceasefire plan the White House is working on either misunderstands the proposal or misstates some key reality on the ground,” Vance stated.

Initial Attempts and EU Responses

Vance's initial attempts at hammering out a ceasefire agreement with Russia, while simultaneously attempting to renew ties with Moscow, were fruitless and left his camp feeling disappointed with their Russian counterparts. European officials, in turn, were irritated by his early remarks, in which he accused them of running from their constituents, who Vance claimed held restrictionist and conservative views similar to those of Trump's own constituency.

But, the new 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 criticized for accepting a ceasefire plan that mostly resembles Vladimir Putin's maximalist terms.

In posts this past weekend, Vance asserted that a ceasefire agreement would have to produce a ceasefire that honored Ukrainian sovereignty, be agreeable to each party, and stop the conflict from resuming.

“Peace won’t be made by failed negotiators or officials living in a fantasy land,” he continued. “An agreement could be made by smart people operating in the real world.”

Additionally, it was Vance who continued on the introduction of the ceasefire proposal in a conversation with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had primarily instructed his team with securing a signature on the ceasefire accord prior to Thanksgiving this week in the United States.

Rubio's Response and Internal Concerns

That was a notably more full-throated endorsement of the proposal than that expressed by the top diplomat and security advisor, Marco Rubio, a more conventional hardliner in the administration who has transitioned from a shaky stature inside the administration to more firm footing.

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

But, his first response to the deal was tepid:

“Stopping a complex and deadly war such as the one in Ukraine requires an thorough discussion of serious and realistic proposals,” Rubio wrote over the weekend. “Furthermore, achieving a durable ceasefire will require each party to agree to difficult but essential concessions. That is why we are and will persist to create a set of potential ideas for ending this war based on feedback from each party of this war.”

Behind closed doors, he was said to be much more skeptical of the proposal. The Republican senator Mike Rounds stated last week at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had called lawmakers to clarify that the deal was merely a initial proposal from the Russians and not an initiative pushed by the White House.

“Rubio made a call to us this day and I think he made it very clear to us that we are the receivers of a proposal that was delivered to one of our officials,” said Rounds. “The document is not our recommendation, it is not our peace plan.”

Rubio moved quickly to align himself. “The peace proposal was written by the US,” he later wrote. “It is offered as a strong framework for continuing negotiations. The proposal is based on feedback from the Russian side. But, it is additionally informed by earlier and ongoing input from Ukraine.”