U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said a Ukrainian counteroffensive is being prepared in the coming weeks, and success on the battlefield could bring closer negotiations that could produce a just peace.

"We know that the Ukrainians are contemplating a counteroffensive in the weeks to come. Let's see what happens with that. And ultimately, its success on the battlefield is the best way and probably the quickest way to actually get to a negotiation that produces a just and durable peace," he told Fox News on Tuesday, according to the U.S State Department website.

As Blinken noted, in Ukraine, Russia "has already failed in the sense that what they were trying to accomplish initially was to erase Ukraine from the map, to subsume it into Russia, to eliminate its existence as an independent state. That's failed and it's not going to succeed."

Asked about China's latest initiatives on Ukraine, Blinken said the United States welcomes any peace dialogue, but noted one major condition. "It [peace] begins, first of all, with the recognition that what – that what's fundamentally at stake is the territorial integrity and sovereignty and independence of Ukraine, so any peace agreement has to have that as its foundation"

"It's also very important that anyone who's engaging in efforts to advance peace be talking directly to the Ukrainians. They're the aggrieved party," Blinken said.