What about Zelensky? His claims to reach 1991 borders look even less realistic than before. The inability of Ukraine to win the war makes their diplomatic efforts rather clumsy.

Zelensky declared his "formula of peace" in the end of 2022, which must be supported by other countries on a world summit. Switzerland offered a venue for such conference, and the Ukrainian diplomats begin to invite the world leaders. The idea was the following: in Switzerland the president of Ukraine meets the leaders of other countries (the more, the better) and together they write the peace conditions for Russia, including total retreat of Russian forces from officially recognized territories of Ukraine, reparations etc. Now this looks a bit funny, but the autumn of 2022 was very successful for Ukraine, and many expected further Ukrainian advancement as smth inevitable. Then Ukraine failed, but the Swiss platform remained, and the conference was held on the 16-17 of June. Russian media preferred to underscore the fails of this gatherings: absence of China and Saudi Arabia, Biden's refusal to participate, low level representation of India and many other countries. Some representatives didn't leave theur signaturies on the final document. Still, for the balance, I should say that in hard conditions Zelensky managed to meet almost half of the world.

As usual, it's very complicated to synchronize the actions of various countries, and the final declaration of the Swiss conference looks rather dull: all countries support territorial integrity, food security, view the nuclear attacks unacceptable etc. The main goals of Ukraine to accuse Russia and name the withdrawal of Russian troops as the obligatory starting point for a dialogue weren't reached.

In recent days both Putin and Zelensky were active on the diplomatic front. Putin named the desired conditions of the peace agreement on the meeting with the officials of Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Now they include
— the resignation of Zelensky. It was stated multiple times that his rule is illegal, because his term came to an end in May and there is no official mechanism for Zelensky to be in control of Ukraine anymore
— the territories of the Crimea, Zaporozhye, Kherson, Donetsk and Lugansk regions must be Russian, regardless of current military control in these areas
— neutral status of Ukraine. The membership in military alliances like NATO is prohibited

Also Putin, as usual, mentioned demilitarization and denazification, without further explanation, and demanded from the West to cancel sanctions.

In short, what Putin does is eventual increase of demands from Ukraine. In Istanbul 2022 everything looked softer. Nobody talked about Zaporozhye and Kherson, the discussion of the status of Crimea was proposed to postpone for 10-15 years etc.

Christ is risen!

Apparently the best entertainment for Moscow in May was provided by the Russian Armed Forces. Two days ago the exhibition of trophies was opened for the public. The entrance is free, so the place is overcrowded and it is a bit hard to make photos. Every vehicle has a description card, like at museums. There are even guides from the military personnel. They tell about the characteristics of the equipment and how it ended up here.

On the photos you can see:
?? Bushman armoured car
?? AMX-10 RC armoured fighting vehicle
?? M1 Abrams tank
?? M777 howitzer
?? Marder self-propelled artillery
?? Kozak armoured car
?? Stridsfordon 9040 infantry fighting vehicle