The first direct Ukraine-Russia talks did not deliver a ceasefire but it did result in the largest prisoner swap of the war. CHERNIHIV REGION, Ukraine — For hours Friday, a crowd of hopefuls stood on the roadside wrapped in blue-and-yellow flags and clutching photos of captured Ukrainian soldiers — their eyes peeled for any sign of buses.

The Taliban administration is in advanced talks with Russia for banks from both sanctions-hit economies to settle trade transactions worth hundreds of millions of dollars in their local currencies, Afghanistan's acting commerce minister said.

A Kremlin spokesman says Russia and Ukraine have no scheduled direct peace talks. The statement Thursday came nearly a week after their first face-to-face meeting since the early weeks of Moscow's invasion in 2022 and days after U.

Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov has said reviving the nation's birth rate is one of Russia's "top priorities."

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov cast doubt on Friday over the Vatican as a potential location for peace talks between Russia and Ukraine, saying that the Holy See itself would find it uncomfortable to host two mainly Orthodox Christian nations.

Russian armed forces are creating a “security buffer zone” along the border between Russia and Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin said Thursday.

TASS/. Russia's experience of the special military operation is being closely studied by foreign political leadership and defense industry experts, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a government meeting on military-technical cooperation.

The 1998 crisis worsened the situation, as a global recession and falling commodity prices led to fiscal imbalances and doubts about Russia’s ability to service its debt and uphold the fixed exchange rate. The central bank raised interest rates to 150% to try and stabilise the rouble, but this failed.