On 12 June 2025, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a formal message congratulating the Russian people on Russia Day, which coincided with Kyiv’s announcement that Russian troop losses in Ukraine have surpassed one million.

Rubio’s greetings

The message, published on the official website of the US Department of State, reads:

“On behalf of the American people, I want to congratulate the Russian people on Russia Day.”

Rubio further stated that “the United States remains committed to supporting the Russian people as they continue to build on their aspirations for a brighter future.”

He also emphasized a desire for “constructive engagement with the Russian Federation to bring about a durable peace between Russia and Ukraine. It is our hope that peace will foster more mutually beneficial relations between our countries.”

The Russia Day holiday, marked annually on 12 June, commemorates Russia’s 1990 declaration of sovereignty.

US repeats Ukraine-Russia talks mantra despite Russia’s rejection of ceasefires

Russian losses

On the same day, the Ukrainian General Staff announced that Russian military personnel losses in Ukraine have exceeded one million:

Russia loses one million soldiers: Moscow’s casualties reach seven figures, Ukraine says

Trump’s diplomatic shift and warming ties with Moscow

Reuters also reported that Moscow’s new ambassador to the US, Aleksandr Darchiev, formally presented his credentials to President Donald Trump on the same day. Darchiev pledged to work toward the full restoration of US-Russian diplomatic ties.

The development signals improving relations between the two countries under the Trump administration, despite Russia has only been escalating its war of aggression in Ukraine.

While US President Donald Trump has been pushing for Kyiv-Moscow peace talks for months, his efforts have predictably gone nowhere, as Russia’s unchanged maximalist demands — amounting to Ukraine’s capitulation — leave no real path to peace.

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Strong Russian public support for war

The latest data from the Levada Center from May show that around 75% of Russians continue to support their government’s war against Ukraine. The support has not changed since last November.

Editor's note: This story has been updated to include Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha's reaction.  

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio congratulated the Russian people on June 12, Russia's National Day, and expressed a desire for "constructive engagement" to bring peace to Ukraine.

"On behalf of the American people, I want to congratulate the Russian people on Russia Day," Rubio said in a statement published on the State Department's website.

"The United States remains committed to supporting the Russian people as they continue to build on their aspirations for a brighter future."

After taking office in January, the new U.S. administration took a sharp break from ex-President Joe Biden's policy on Ukraine and Russia.

U.S. President Donald Trump's team has sought to broker a peace deal between Kyiv and Moscow while being reluctant to commit additional funds or military aid to the besieged country.

"It is our hope that peace will foster more mutually beneficial relations between our countries," Rubio said.

Washington has also signaled an intent to restore ties with Moscow, with both sides discussing venues for possible economic cooperation.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha later said that he found it "unpleasant" to read the congratulations from "some countries" on Russia Day.

"As the minister of a country at war, I found it particularly unpleasant this morning to read the public congratulations from some countries to the Russian aggressor," European Pravda quoted him as saying.

The minister also added that he "has the moral right to say this" and further noted that "there can be no reward for the aggressor country."

While the Biden administration imposed massive sanctions on Russia and sought to isolate Russian President Vladimir Putin on the international stage, Trump has often boasted about his close ties with the Russian leader and refused to impose additional economic restrictions.

Russia Day, also known as the Day of Adoption of the Declaration of State Sovereignty of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, has been celebrated annually on June 12 since 1992.

The day commemorates the declaration of Russia's state sovereignty from the Soviet Union, marking the start of a constitutional reform that eventually led to the breakdown of the USSR.

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In May 2025 alone, the project received a record 12,320 inquiries — the highest monthly figure since the program began in January 2024.

The Kyiv IndependentAnna Fratsyvir

On 7 June 2025, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot that direct negotiations between Ukraine and Russia remain essential for ending the war, according to a readout from the US Department of State.

Rubio brings up direct talks in phone call with Barrot

The US State Department reported that Rubio and Barrot spoke about global security developments. According to the official readout,

“Secretary Rubio underscored the importance of continued direct negotiations between Russia and Ukraine to achieve a lasting peace.”

In the same 7 June call, Rubio and Barrot “reaffirmed their shared commitment to preventing Iran from developing or obtaining a nuclear weapon.” They also discussed support for Israel and emphasized the need to free hostages held in Gaza by Hamas. However, the focus on Ukraine again highlighted Washington’s ongoing strategy of promoting negotiations with Russia.

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Diplomatic pressure unchanged despite lack of results

Despite all the diplomatic efforts, Russia continues to demand Kyiv’s de facto capitulation, repeating its initial full-scale invasion objectives from 2022.

Rubio’s message comes days after a 2 June meeting in Istanbul between Ukrainian and Russian low-level representatives, where both sides agreed to a new exchange of prisoners and fallen soldiers.

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However, Ukraine’s First Deputy Foreign Minister Serhii Kyslytsya said that Russia again rejected an unconditional ceasefire. 

A Trump official who dismantled a counter-disinformation office in the United States government has links to the Kremlin, the Telegraph reported on June 3.

Darren Beattie, who was appointed to the State Department in February 2025 as under secretary for public diplomacy and public affairs, has come under scrutiny for his pro-Russian views. According to the Telegraph, Beattie is married to a Russian woman with links to the Kremlin.

His wife – Yulia Kirillova – is the niece of Sergei Chernikov, a former Russian official who reportedly helped Russian President Vladimir Putin in the election campaign which first brought him to power in 2000.

Beattie notably played a role in dismantling the Counter Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference office, or R/FIMI, which was previously tasked with tracking and countering disinformation from Russia, China, and Iran.

R/FIMI was officially shut down in April 2025, according to a press statement from Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who claimed that the office "spent millions of dollars to actively silence and censor the voices of Americans they were supposed to be serving."

According to sources cited by the Telegraph, Beattie relentlessly pursued R/FIMI after his appointment to the State Department. Secretary Rubio confirmed that Beattie played a significant role in dismantling the agency.

Beattie also showed a keen interest in classified materials related to Russia, raising concerns about granting him access to sensitive information. The sources also expressed concerns about whether he had been adequately vetted – a process that can take anywhere from a couple of months to over a year to complete.

Beattie previously served in the first Trump administration but was ousted after allegedly attending a white nationalist conference in 2018. Since then, he reinvented himself as an "alt-right media" figure and founded the news outlet Revolver.

Through Revolver, Beattie has long criticized R/FIMI and promoted narratives aligned with Kremlin disinformation. He has argued that the U.S. orchestrates "color revolutions" around the world, including in Ukraine – a common narrative used in Kremlin propaganda to delegitimize pro-democracy movements as Western-backed coups.

Beattie has also written social media posts suggesting that Western institutions should be "infiltrated" by the Kremlin, and has attacked the so-called "globalist American empire."

Two months before Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Beattie wrote on X: "Imagine the whining from the Globalist American Empire if Putin 'invades' Ukraine... love it when our national security bureaucrats fail!"

The Trump administration has repeatedly come under fire for its perceived sympathies toward Russia. It has also been criticized for shuttering R/FIMI, particularly amidst a global "information war."

According to the National Endowment for Democracy, Russia spends an estimated $1.5 billion annually on disinformation and foreign influence campaigns. In Europe alone, the Kremlin is believed to be behind 80% of disinformation operations.

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The Kyiv IndependentKateryna Denisova

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio held a phone call on June 1 to discuss Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine and upcoming peace talks scheduled for June 2 in Istanbul.

The call comes on the eve of the second round of direct talks between Kyiv and Moscow, amid escalating attacks as the Kremlin continues to reject calls for an unconditional ceasefire.

According to Russia's Foreign Ministry, Lavrov and Rubio "exchanged views on various initiatives concerning a settlement of the Ukraine crisis, including plans to resume direct Russian-Ukrainian talks in Istanbul on June 2."

The State Department confirmed that Russia requested the call and that Rubio reiterated U.S. President Donald Trump's call for direct talks between Russia and Ukraine to achieve "a lasting peace."

During the most recent peace talks on May 16 — the first direct negotiations between Russia and Ukraine since the start of the war — the two parties spoke for less than two hours, with no agreement reached on a ceasefire.

Moreover, Moscow reiterated its maximalist demands for Kyiv to withdraw completely from four Ukrainian oblasts, despite Russia not controlling any of them in their entirety.

Although the peace talks were largely unsuccessful, Russia and Ukraine managed to reach an agreement for the exchange of prisoners of war (POWs) on a 1,000-for-1,000 basis.

More than a week ago, Russia also promised to reveal its peace terms after the prisoner exchange, but has yet to deliver.

During the June 1 phone call, the Russian Foreign Ministry claimed that Rubio also expressed his condolences over the deaths that resulted from recent train derailment in Russia's Bryansk Oblast, which borders Ukraine.

At least seven people died and another 69 were injured after a train derailed on May 31, following the collapse of an overhead road bridge. The cause of the incident is not yet clear and no one has claimed responsibility for the bridge collapse.

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The Kyiv IndependentThe Kyiv Independent news desk

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov presented to U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio Moscow's "specific proposals" for the next round of peace talks with Ukraine, Russia's Foreign Ministry announced on May 29.

The two diplomats held a phone call on May 28, the day when Russia proposed holding negotiations with Ukraine in Istanbul on June 2 in a follow-up to the first round on May 16.

Lavrov also "informed Marco Rubio about implementing the May 19 agreements between President of Russia Vladimir Putin and President of the United States Donald Trump," the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

Trump and Putin held a phone call on May 19, during which the Russian leader again rejected a truce and pushed for maximalist demands, but also voiced his readiness to negotiate a "memorandum regarding a potential future peace treaty."

During the call with Lavrov, Rubio stressed Trump's "intention to quickly bring the Ukraine conflict to an end and expressed Washington's readiness to help the sides to bring their positions closer together," according to the Russian readout.

While initially reluctant to criticize Putin, Trump adopted an increasingly critical tone toward the Russian leader in recent days as Russian attacks on Ukrainian cities intensify and the Kremlin continues to reject calls for a ceasefire.

Kyiv and its European partners have urged the U.S. to impose additional sanctions to pressure Moscow to agree to a truce. Trump has refused to take the step so far, saying he is "close to getting a deal" and does not want to "screw it up" by fresh sanctions.

"We're going to find out very soon. It'll take about two weeks, or a week and a half," Trump told reporters this week, responding to a question on whether Putin wants to end the war. He added that Washington would "respond a little bit differently" if it appears that Moscow is stalling.

"They seem to want to do something. But until the document is signed, I can't tell you... I'm very disappointed at what happened. A couple of nights now where people were killed in the middle of what you would call a negotiation."

Russia vowed to present its peace memorandum but has yet to deliver, drawing rebuke from Ukrainian, European, and U.S. officials. Trump has also repeatedly signaled he would exit the peace efforts unless progress is achieved soon.

Reuters reported that Putin's conditions for ending Russia's war against Ukraine include a written pledge by NATO not to accept more Eastern European members, lifting of some sanctions, and Ukraine's neutral status, among other demands.

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The Kyiv IndependentThe Kyiv Independent news desk