The ruble surges close to pre-invasion levels as Russia-Ukraine talks raise hopes for end to fighting

• Russia's ruble is rallying as peace talks between Putin and Ukraine show positive signs.
• About 87 rubles are now worth a single dollar — a stark gain from last month.

The price of the ruble against the dollar is rallying as peace talks between Russia and Ukraine show signs of hope.

Approximately 87 rubles are now worth a single US dollar in offshore trade — close to the roughly 84-ruble level seen before Putin's forces invaded Ukraine last month.

Peace talks between the two countries had shown little progress for weeks. But on Tuesday both sides took notable steps, with Ukraine offering to never join NATO and Russia saying it would scale back assaults on major cities like Kyiv.

The talks, along with earlier measures from Russia's central bank, helped the ruble recover from drastic losses in the last month during which the country's fiat currency was worth less than a penny.

The Russian central bank has helped boost the ruble's value by forcing exporters to buy it and sell their foreign-currency revenue, the Wall Street Journal reported, noting that locals have also lost the ability to exchange the ruble for foreign bills.

As a result, the ruble's price has been propped up more in Moscow and on Tuesday jumped to 82.9525 to the dollar, the highest since February 25, before paring gains, according to Reuters. Still, the ruble is among the year's worst performing currencies.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which has caused thousands of civilian casualties in the eastern European country, prompted major sanctions from the West that have largely cut Russia and its leaders off from the financial system and spurred a surge in global prices of commodities like gold and oil.