The best time to help end Russia-Ukraine conflict is now

The latest intensive diplomatic efforts to help end the 42-month-long Russia-Ukraine conflict provide an opportunity for restoring peace, which should not be allowed to go to waste despite the many differences and huge challenges ahead.

Although US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin did not reach a deal to end the conflict, their summit in Anchorage, Alaska, was billed as a vital step toward peace in Ukraine.

More important, Trump said he was trying to schedule a summit between Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky. The Anchorage summit was followed by Trump's summit with Zelensky and several other European leaders in Washington on Monday.

Trump deserves some understanding for reaching out to the US' so-called adversaries, including Russia, because it is necessary to talk to the other side, instead of with just allies and friendly countries, in order to broker peace and bring a conflict to end.

On the contrary, the lack of such diplomacy between the US and the European Union and Russia during the Joe Biden administration was part of the reasons for the intensification of the Ukraine crisis in the past three plus years. As a result, the conflict has claimed thousands of lives and caused enormous economic losses on both sides.

Prolonging and escalating the conflict, which some European countries seem to be driving at, will only result in bigger disasters for not only Ukraine and Russia but also Europe.

Unfortunately, that still seems to be the preferred choice of many European politicians despite their public flattering of Trump for his efforts to help end the conflict. In fact, many still dream of seeing Russia suffer a decisive defeat, and don't believe Trump has their best interests in mind.

That's why some European leaders have been trying to deny the necessity and value of the Alaska summit by claiming Putin does not want peace and cannot be trusted.

The European Union will not gain anything by calling for new sanctions against Russia — as it has been doing amid Trump's diplomatic outreach. Both European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said earlier this week that the EU's 19th sanctions package against Russia should be ready by September.

If the past 18 rounds of sanctions failed to achieve the desired outcome, will the 19th sanctions package make any difference?

For anyone who's been following the more than three-year-long conflict, it is clear that the best time for mediating countries to broker a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine is now, and not after another three years.

Indeed, many of the involved parties' demands are conflicting, from Trump's so-called "territorial swap" to Ukraine's NATO membership to "detailed security guarantee". And these are all tough issues, especially because they are politically sensitive nature. But that should not deter the genuine peace-seekers from mediating peace between Moscow and Kyiv.

A peace deal between Russia and Ukraine will likely require many rounds of talks. But declaring a ceasefire and holding talks are always better than fighting. As Winston Churchill said in 1954, to jaw-jaw is always better than to war-war.

China has been calling for an immediate ceasefire and dialogue for the past three years to end the Russia-Ukraine conflict. And now that another opportunity has arisen to end the conflict, the parties involved should not waste any more precious time to restore peace.

The author is a China Daily columnist and senior correspondent.