The Daily Psyop

The EU on Friday announced it was transferring about $1.6 billion in frozen Russian Central Bank assets to Ukraine for the purchase of weapons.

The step is the first time the EU has dipped into the frozen Russian assets to fund the proxy war and marks a significant escalation of the Western economic campaign against Moscow.

The transfer came after the EU agreed to provide Ukraine with about $3.2 billion per year using the profits made by the Russian assets. The EU has also agreed to a US-proposed plan to loan $50 billion to Ukraine and pay it back using frozen Russian funds, but it’s unclear when that will go through.

According to Euro News, 90% of the $1.6 billion will go toward weapons, and 10% will be spent on humanitarian aid. But the money is being wired directly into the Ukrainian government’s budget, and it’s unclear if there’s any real oversight.

Russia has vowed that it will respond to the EU or any Western country stealing its Central Bank assets. Western banks have warned against the plan to send Russian assets to Ukraine as they fear it will open them up to legal action if they’re involved in any of the transfers.

Ukrainian Justice Minister Denys Maliuska previously called the EU’s plan to provide the $3.2 billion each year “almost nothing” and demanded that Kyiv receive the approximately $300 billion in Russian Central Bank assets that are held by Western countries.

Israel will be looking to retaliate, but it will want to avoid a major escalation, experts say.

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The Pentagon announced on Friday that it was providing Ukraine with a new weapons package worth $1.7 billion, which includes munitions for air defense systems, ammunition for HIMARS rocket systems, artillery shells, and other types of equipment.

The package includes $1.5 billion that’s being provided through the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI). The USAI allows the US to purchase weapons for Ukraine, which means it could take months or years before the equipment is delivered.

The other $200 million uses the Presidential Drawdown Authority, which allows President Biden to ship weapons to Ukraine directly from Pentagon stockpiles. The announcement came a few days after the Pentagon said it found an “accounting error” that overvalued previous weapons sent to Ukraine, freeing up another $2 billion to spend on the proxy war.

The new US military aid comes as Russian forces are making steady gains in the east and are closing in on the Donestk city of Pokrovsk.

According to the Pentagon, the new weapons package includes:

Munitions for National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS)

Short- and medium-range air defense munitions

RIM-7 missiles for air defense

Electronic Warfare equipment

Ammunition for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS)

155mm and 105mm artillery rounds

120mm mortar rounds

Precision aerial munitions

Tube-Launched, Optically-Tracked, Wire-Guided (TOW) missiles

Javelin and AT-4 anti-armor systems

Small arms

Explosives material and demolitions equipment and munitions

Secure communications systems

Commercial satellite imagery services

Spare parts, maintenance and sustainment support, and other ancillary equipment

The Pentagon also released a fact sheet on Monday that said the Biden administration has pledged more than $55.4 billion in military equipment for Ukraine since Russia launched its invasion in February 2022.

Washington says military restructuring aimed at countering growing threats from China, North Korea and Russia.

Nearly daily attacks back and forth across the Lebanon-Israel border continued today, with an Israeli drone strike hitting a motorbike in Mays al-Jabal close to the Israel border, killing two riders and injuring a child. Those killed were reported by the Israeli military to be Hezbollah members, but that has not been confirmed.

Further attacks hit various targets across southern Lebanon, with reports of several other injuries over the course of the early day, bringing the total injured to five, apparently all civilians.

The attacks come after a weekend rocket strike which killed 12 civilians in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. The Israeli government was quick to blame Hezbollah for the rocket strike, which hit a Druze community, but Hezbollah denied responsibility, and Lebanon has pointed out that Hezbollah attacks almost exclusively attack Israeli military targets, not civilians.

Whatever proves to be the case, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is promising a “harsh” response militarily against Hezbollah for the incident. This has led to warnings internationally that the Israeli response could lead to international war.

Israeli diplomatic sources said an international war would not be in Israel’s interest, and they doubt any retaliation they launch will lead to such an all-out war.

While further Israeli attack escalations are a given, analysts say they do not believe today’s attacks on southern Lebanon amount to the beginning of Israel’s “retaliation” against the Majdal Shams incident, but rather is just a continuation of general attacks on targets in southern Lebanon.

The US and Japan have announced steps to strengthen their military alliance as part of a US-led buildup in the region aimed at China.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin are visiting the region and held talks with their Japanese counterparts in Tokyo on Sunday. One step the four officials announced was a US plan to upgrade its command center in Japan.

The overhaul of the command center will give US Forces Japan more authority to conduct joint operations with the Japanese military without having to go through US Indo-Pacific Command in Hawaii.

“The United States will upgrade the US Forces Japan to a joint force headquarters with expanded missions and operational responsibilities,” Austin told reporters. “This will be the most significant change to US Forces Japan since its creation and one of the strongest improvements in our military ties with Japan in 70 years.”

Japan hosts more than 54,000 US troops, the largest foreign US military presence in the world. About 70% of US bases in Japan are in the Okinawa Prefecture, which accounts for only 0.6% of Japan’s territory. The people of Okinawa overwhelmingly want the US to reduce its military presence, but Washington and Tokyo are forcing a construction project to relocate a base against the wishes of the prefecture’s governor.

The US and Japan also announced on Sunday plans to increase cooperation in developing weapons and for more joint training and military exercises. The US has been forming a trilateral military alliance with Japan and the Philippines, and the officials pledged to continue boosting that cooperation.

“The Ministers supported increased bilateral and multilateral cooperation with the Philippines, including on maritime security and capacity building,” the US and Japanese officials said in a joint statement. Austin and Blinken are headed to the Philippines next and are expected to announce new US military support for Manila.

The joint statement released by the US and Japan also labeled China as the “greatest strategic challenge in the Indo-Pacific region and beyond. They accused China of seeking to “reshape the international order for its own benefit at the expense of others.”

While in Japan, Blinken held a separate meeting on Monday with foreign ministers from the Quad nations. The Quad is an informal military alliance formed by the US, Japan, India, and Australia. In a joint statement, the ministers hit out at China’s activity in the South and East China Seas.

“We are seriously concerned about the situation in the East and South China Seas and reiterate our strong opposition to any unilateral actions that seek to change the status quo by force or coercion,” the Quad ministers said.

When asked about the Quad statement, China said it was the Quad countries that were stoking tensions in the region. “The Quad keeps chanting the slogan of a free and open Indo-Pacific, and all the while, it has been scaremongering, inciting antagonism and confrontation, and holding back other countries’ development,” said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian.

“Some countries outside the region have frequently sent advanced military aircraft and vessels to the South China Sea to flex their muscles and create tension, and have formed various groupings and incited division and confrontation in the region, all of which make them the biggest threat and challenge to regional peace and stability,” Lin added.

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