Russia’s memorandum on a peace proposal is the “best offer Ukraine can get today,” Russia’s envoy to the United Nations (UN), Vasily Nebenzya, said at a UN Security Council meeting on June 20.

“During the direct Russian-Ukrainian talks that were held, we presented our memorandum on a peaceful settlement. It consists of two parts: conditions for a comprehensive long-term peace and conditions for a ceasefire,” Nebenzya said.

“This is the best offer Ukraine can get today. We advise accepting it as things will only get worse for Kyiv, from here on out,” he said.

At Istanbul peace talks on June 2, Russian negotiators told the Ukrainian delegation that their so-called “peace memorandum” is an ultimatum Kyiv cannot accept, President Volodymyr Zelensky said in an interview published on June 10.

“They even told our delegation: we know that our memorandum is an ultimatum, and you will not accept it,” Zelensky said. “Thus, the question is not the quality of the Istanbul format, but what to do about the Russians’ lies.”

“In Istanbul, we also agreed on a large-scale exchange of prisoners of war,” Nebenzya said at the UN Security Council meeting on Ukraine.

Aside from agreeing on large-scale prisoner exchanges, peace negotiations between Ukraine and Russia have been largely inconclusive as Moscow continues to issue maximalist demands toward Kyiv.

Nebenzya noted that Ukraine and Russia should resume direct peace talks in Turkey after June 22, despite Russia’s intensified drone and missile attacks on Ukraine.

On June 17, a Russian drone and missile attack on Kyiv killed 30 people and injured another 172. The nearly nine-hour-long strike saw Moscow’s forces launch large numbers of drones and missiles at Ukraine’s capital.

Russia’s statements diverged from those of other speakers at the UN Security Council meeting on June 20.

“We call on Russia to agree to an unconditional ceasefire. Russia initiated this war; we call on Russia to end it,” Barbara Woodward, the U.K.’s Permanent Representative to the UN, said.

Russia has illegally laid claim to five Ukrainian regions despite not controlling all of the territory. The regions include Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson oblasts, as well as the Autonomous Republic of Crimea.

U.S. Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker warned on July 22 that China may face consequences for supporting Russia’s war in Ukraine if Moscow rejects a peace settlement.

“I think they need to be called out for their subsidizing this killing that is happening on the battlefields in Ukraine,” Whitaker told Fox Business.

“China thinks they’re fighting a proxy war through Russia. They want to keep the U.S. and our allies occupied with this war, so that we can’t focus on our other strategic challenges.”

The remarks follow U.S. President Donald Trump’s July 14 announcement that the U.S. will impose “severe” secondary tariffs on Russia unless it agrees to end the war within 50 days.

“The secondary sanctions are going to be significant,” Whitaker added. “They’re going to hit countries that are buying Russian oil, whether that’s China, India, or Brazil.”

The U.S. strategy seeks to pressure Russia by curbing its oil and gas income, which accounts for roughly one-third of federal revenue and remains a vital source of funding for its war effort.

If a third country like China keeps buying Russian oil, exports to the U.S. could face a further 100% tariff, significantly raising prices for American consumers and squeezing Chinese exporters.

China remains one of Russia’s closest wartime economic partners. It is Moscow’s top crude oil buyer and a major supplier of dual-use goods used in Russia’s defense sector.

The South China Morning Post reported earlier this month that Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas that China “cannot afford” for Russia to lose the war in Ukraine, citing unnamed sources familiar with the exchange.

Ukraine has raised alarms over Beijing’s alignment with Moscow. President Volodymyr Zelensky has repeatedly warned of China’s role in prolonging the war and accused it of siding with the Kremlin.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is expected to visit China in September for the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit, where he will meet Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi reportedly told the EU’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas on July 3 that the country cannot afford for Russia to lose the war in Ukraine amid fears the U.S. would shift focus towards Beijing, the South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported, citing sources familiar with the conversation.

As the war in Ukraine drags on, Wang’s reported comments suggest that Russia’s war in Ukraine may serve China’s strategic needs as focus is deviated away from Beijing’s mounting preparation to launch its own possible invasion into Taiwan.

China has been a key ally to Russia during its full-scale war, helping Moscow evade Western sanctions and becoming the leading source of dual-use goods fueling the Russian defense industry.

U.S. President Donald Trump, who has not managed to broker a promised ceasefire between Moscow and Kyiv, has long viewed China as the United States’ main adversary and is predominantly focused on relations between the two nations.

In June, Bloomberg reported Trump is pulling back from pressuring China over its support for Russia’s war effort, instead prioritizing other aspects of the U.S.-China relationship. The publication reported that the administration lowered the issue of Russia’s war against Ukraine on its list of foreign policy priorities and is focusing on bilateral issues with Beijing, though they noted Trump could still shift course.

The frankness of Wang’s reported admission was greeted with surprise by EU official, according to Hong Kong-based SCMP, amid China’s past public statements in favor of a peace deal. Two sources familiar with the meeting told SCMP that they believed Wang was providing Kallas with a lesson in realpolitik during the four-hour encounter.

Wang on July 3 again reportedly rejected Western accusations that it was providing funding and weaponry to support Moscow’s war effort in Ukraine.

President Volodymyr Zelensky has repeatedly accused Beijing of providing weaponry to Moscow. On May 29, Zelensky said that China had stopped selling drones to Ukraine and Western countries while continuing to supply them to Russia.

Wang’s comments come amid waning support from Kyiv’s main military backer, the United States. On July 1, the U.S. Defense Department paused shipments of key weapons systems to Ukraine, including Patriot air defense missiles and precision-guided munitions.

As Russian-Chinese relations continue to grow, Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to meet Chinese President Xi Jingping in September in China for the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit.

Russia is using the return of war dead as a tool for manipulation to obscure the scale of its military losses from the public, President Volodymyr Zelensky said during a briefing on June 20 attended by the Kyiv Independent.

According to Zelensky, Ukrainian authorities have confirmed that at least 20 of the bodies Russia returned as Ukrainian were actually Russian soldiers.

“Sometimes these bodies even have Russian passports,” Zelensky said. He also cited the case of a deceased Israeli citizen fighting on Russia’s side, whom Moscow had passed off as a Ukrainian soldier.

“Putin is afraid to admit how many people have died. Because if the moment comes when he needs to mobilize, his society will be afraid,” he said.

Zelensky’s remarks follow the June 2 prisoner and body exchange agreement in Istanbul, the most extensive of the full-scale war. Under that deal, Ukraine recovered 6,057 bodies of its fallen soldiers. Russia, according to Kremlin aide Vladimir Medinsky, took back only 78.

Explaining the difference between the two numbers, Zelensky said that the bodies of the vast majority of Russian soldiers currently killed on the battlefield remain in Russian hands.

“They were advancing, and their dead remained in the territory where they were,” he said.

According to the president, exchanges of bodies and even severely wounded soldiers have taken place on the battlefield, but such exchanges are typically not publicized.

President Volodymyr Zelensky presents evidence to the media in Kyiv on June 21, 2025, showing that Russia handed over the bodies of its own soldiers during exchanges. (Presidential Office) President Volodymyr Zelensky presents evidence to the media in Kyiv on June 21, 2025, showing that Russia handed over the bodies of its own soldiers during exchanges. (Presidential Office)

Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko earlier confirmed a case in which the remains of Alexander Viktorovich Bugaev, a Russian soldier from the 39th Separate Guards Motorized Rifle Brigade, were returned to Ukraine disguised as a Ukrainian casualty.

“This shows how little human life means to Russia. Or maybe it’s just a way to avoid paying compensation to the families. But they will have to pay anyway: we are returning these bodies,” Klymenko said on June 19.

Ukraine’s General Staff said on June 21 that Russian forces have sustained over 1,010,000 casualties — killed and wounded — since launching the full-scale invasion in February 2022.

Independent Russian outlet Mediazona, along with the BBC Russian Service, has verified the identities of 111,387 Russian soldiers killed, emphasizing that the actual number is likely much higher.

Russia has continued to deny the scale of its losses, often inflating Ukrainian casualties and spreading false narratives. Zelensky warned that this is part of a broader propaganda effort to “break the reality in which we live,” in which Russian forces are suffering far greater losses.

The June 2 negotiations in Istanbul led to the most extensive prisoner and body exchange agreement of the full-scale war, although no ceasefire was achieved.

On June 7, Russia accused Kyiv of rejecting a proposed body return, releasing footage that allegedly showed Ukrainian corpses stored in refrigeration units. Ukraine dismissed these claims, saying that the footage was shot on Russian territory, not at a designated handover site.

Kyiv has consistently called for an “all-for-all” exchange of prisoners of war, but Moscow has so far refused to agree to a comprehensive swap.

Russia wants to resolve its war in Ukraine through “diplomatic and political means” but would continue military operations until its “goals” are achieved, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on July 27.

Responding to a question from Russian state-controlled news agency Tass, Peskov said that “the goals of (war) must be fulfilled before the principles of future relations with Ukraine can be determined.”

Russia continues to push for the same core demands it outlined at the start of its full-scale invasion in 2022: a ban on Ukraine joining NATO, large-scale demilitarization of the country, and legal “guarantees” for the Russian language, culture, and Moscow-linked religious groups in Ukraine.

The Kremlin has also demanded constitutional changes in Ukraine, including recognition of four Ukrainian oblasts as Russian territory, along with the Crimean peninsula, which it seized in 2014.

Peskov claimed Russia would “prefer” to resolve the conflict through dialogue, but said military operations continue because “opponents rejected the path of negotiations.”

Kyiv has consistently supported negotiations but refused to accept Russia’s maximalist conditions, which are essentially capitulation.

Ukraine has also consistently rejected all demands that involve ceding territory or weakening its military. President Volodymyr Zelensky and top officials have said any peace must begin with an unconditional ceasefire.

Peskov’s comments came days after the third round of peace talks between Ukrainian and Russian delegations in Istanbul, where Ukraine reiterated its call for a full ceasefire and humanitarian agreements.

The latest round of peace talks between the two sides took place in Istanbul on July 23, marking the third formal meeting since negotiations resumed earlier this year after a long pause.

Ukrainian officials proposed a meeting between Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin before the end of August, but the Russian side again declined the idea of a meeting between the two leaders.

Russia’s delegation, led by presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky, proposed creating three working groups to address political, military, and humanitarian issues. Moscow also offered to facilitate brief ceasefires to retrieve wounded soldiers and repatriate bodies and claimed it would return the remains of 3,000 Ukrainian servicemen through the Red Cross.

The revived diplomatic push comes as the U.S. increases pressure on Russia to end the war. On July 14, U.S. President Donald Trump warned that he would impose “severe” tariffs on Russia unless a peace deal is reached within 50 days.