The exchange resulted from years of complicated behind-the-scenes negotiations involving the US, Russia, Belarus and Germany, which had to be cajoled into releasing convicted Russian assassin Vadim Krasikov.

In all, 16 Americans, Russians and Germans were freed from Russia, in exchange for eight Russians held in the United States, Germany and other countries.

Biden rightly described the prisoner exchange as a ‘feat of diplomacy’ and thanked allies Germany, Poland, Slovenia, Norway and Turkey, who stood with the US throughout the ‘tough and complex negotiations’ to achieve the outcome.

However, the US President’s remarks left manyin the world wondering: if a complex prisoner swap deal like this can be worked out through dialogue, what is stopping global leaders from putting their heads together to find ways to end the Ukraine war, now running into its third year?

It is not that leading world powers have not been trying hard to broker peace in Ukraine. But, for a variety of reasons, their efforts have failed to deliver any tangible results.

The latest such attempt was the Ukraine Peace Summit hosted by Switzerland on June 15 and 16, in which a large number of countries participated.

The conference produced a joint statement signed by 81 countries, yetit failed to make any headway as aggressor Russia was not invited to the conclave. China, an ally of Russia, also did not attend the summit, indicating the two still had suspicions over the West’s motives.

South Asian major India attended the conclave but did not sign the joint statement that focused on three broad areas: safety of nuclear installations under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency, free flow of Ukrainian agricultural products to buyer nations, and exchange of prisoners of war.

With no specific action plan on the table, the Switzerland peace summit seemed more of a Western effort to rally international support around victim Ukraine and further isolate invader Russia.

President Putin, who was keeping a tab on the international mobilisation against him, quickly floated a ceasefire formula, urging Ukraine to give up plans to join NATO and pullout its  troops from four regions – Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia – that Russia has annexed.

Putin knew well that his peace plan had little chance of finding favour with the US and Europe, but he nevertheless forwarded the proposal to project the image that he too was pushing for peace in Eurasia.

As expected, the United States, Germany, Italy and even Kyiv rejected the Russian president’s ceasefire plan, saying it went against Ukrainian interests and was dictatorial in nature.

Of late, Ukrainian forces have gone on an offensive – aimed at projecting an image of a strong battling nation – which has worried Russian military commanders.

Two days before the Switzerland summit, a G7 conclave in Italy also reviewed the Ukraine war and decided to continue defending Kyiv till a peace formula was arrived at.

The G7, a group of seven rich nations comprising Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and the US, also approved a $50 billion loan from frozen Russian assets abroad to help Zelenskyy keep up the fight.

Putin described the G7 move as ‘theft’ and threatened retaliatory action, indicating Moscow was prepared for a long haul in the Ukraine war.

On the sidelines of the G7 conclave, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and US President Joe Biden signed a ten-year bilateral security deal, indicating that Washington, too, anticipates a long-drawn-out conflict in Kyiv, despite the various efforts to end it.

Mention must also be made of two attempts to broker peace in the Ukraine war during the initial days of the conflict, when senior officials from both Moscow and Kyiv sat across the table to work out ways to end the war.