Peace Talks Resume as Russia Claims First City Since Invasion

Welcome to Morning Brief, where we’re rounding up the latest on Russia’s war in Ukraine, the intervention of the International Criminal Court, and the renewed focus on oligarchs.

If you would like to receive Morning Brief in your inbox every weekday, please sign up here.

Russian and Ukrainian negotiators meet in Belarus today for peace talks as the war enters its second week.

The talks take place as momentum slowly shifts toward the invaders, after Russia notched its first strategic victory late Wednesday when it captured Kherson, a city of around 300,000 people and home to a port on both the Black Sea and Dnieper River. Kherson’s mayor said the city would now be in the hands of a Russian military administration.

In Kharkiv, a monitor from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe was killed in a Russian strike as the city continues to suffer bombardment.

Russia’s forces in the south are attempting to shut off Ukraine’s access to the Black Sea. Mariupol in the east is still surrounded while an amphibious assault on Odessa could come as soon as today, according to U.S. officials.

Logistical snags that have plagued Russian forces in Ukraine’s north have yet to improve, with a 40-mile military convoy headed in the direction of the capital, Kyiv, reportedly stalled. A U.S. defense official, speaking to reporters on condition of anonymity, said food and fuel shortages have disrupted the vehicles’ progress and confirmed that Ukrainian efforts to target the convoy with artillery have seen some success.

Meanwhile, the refugee exodus shows no signs of stopping. U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi reported that the total number of those leaving Ukraine has reached more than 1 million people.

The death toll. As the information war proceeds in parallel with destruction on the ground, both sides released contrasting Russian troop casualty numbers, with Russia’s defense ministry admitting to at least 498 dead and 1,597 injured while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky gave a much higher figure: 6,000 dead. The truth is likely somewhere in between those two figures, but the fact that Russia is announcing the figures at all is a turnaround from just a few days ago, when officials claimed zero fatalities.

Russia claims to have killed 2,870 Ukrainian soldiers and wounded roughly 3,700 people. There hasn’t been a corresponding claim from the Ukrainian side on casualties sustained thus far.

See you in court? As the focus turns to civilians amid Russian shelling of Ukrainian cities, the International Criminal Court (ICC) announced on Wednesday that it was opening an active investigation into war crimes committed against the civilian population, making it the 17th case the court is investigating around the world. The U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights has so far recorded 752 civilian deaths since the war broke out.

It’s not clear what kind of justice the ICC could seek, since Russia (like China, India, Israel, and the United States) does not recognize the court. Ukraine, a country that has signed but not ratified the Rome Statute—the treaty establishing the court—accepted the court’s jurisdiction in a previous case.

Oligarchs under the spotlight. The U.S. Justice Department on Wednesday announced the formation of a task force to track down and seize assets belonging to Russian oligarchs targeted by U.S. sanctions. (The group may want to begin with the state of South Dakota, which has fast become a money laundering mecca, according to Pandora papers leaks.)

The move comes as officials in Switzerland, another dark money haven, adopted European Union sanctions on Russian individuals and entities, potentially freezing billions of dollars in assets.

In the United Kingdom, whose capital has earned the nickname Londongrad for its soft approach on Russian oligarch investments in recent years, the government has been criticized for not moving quickly enough to target assets held there. Roman Abramovich, one of the world’s most famous oligarchs for his ownership of the Chelsea soccer club, is already attempting to get out of the limelight and away from sanctions. On Wednesday, he announced he was selling the club after almost two decades as owner; he also appears to be hastily selling some of his exclusive London properties.

Borrell in Moldova. EU foreign-policy chief Josep Borrell is in Moldova today to meet with Moldovan President Maia Sandu and Prime Minister Natalia Gavrilita as the subject of the country’s EU membership comes back into focus following Ukraine’s formal application earlier this week. Georgia is expected to follow Ukraine’s lead and submit its application today.

Borrell is also scheduled to visit refugees following the arrival of more than 112,000 Ukrainians to the country in recent days. Moldova, Europe’s poorest country, has appealed for help from the international community as Sandu on Thursday warned the country was reaching “its limits.”

Plastic’s ozone moment. Almost 200 countries have agreed to begin talks on an international agreement to reduce plastic waste and pollution after a meeting of the U.N. Environment Assembly in Nairobi. Earlier this week, Alejandra Parra and Claire Arkin, both with the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives, argued any future treaty should follow in the footsteps of the Montreal Protocol, a largely successful international deal that phased out the production of chemicals harmful to the Earth’s ozone layer.

Korea’s election. The race to become South Korea’s next president is in its final week, with Democratic Party candidate Lee Jae-myung and conservative Yoon Suk-yeol in a tight race, according to the latest polls. A survey released on Wednesday, the last day polling is allowed to be published before the March 9 vote, found 46.3 percent of respondents favored Yoon while 43.1 percent preferred Lee.