MOSCOW, RUSSIA | Xinhua | After a brief third round of talks in Istanbul on Wednesday, hopes for a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine remain, unsurprisingly, as frail as ever. During the 40-minute talks,

Negotiators for the warring sides in Istanbul appeared to make little progress on ceasefire terms or a possible summit between their presidents – with their meeting ending after less than an hour.

Ukraine conducted the ninth stage of the prisoner exchange on 23 July, bringing seriously ill and wounded soldiers back home. Source: President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on X (Twitter) Quote: "Today, already the 9th stage of the exchange agreed in Istanbul took place.