The war hawks have long tried to steal Russian assets held in West to then use the money to finance the proxy war against Russia. The sums involved are serious:

Nearly three years after the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Belgium holds €258 billion in frozen or immobilised Russian assets.

The General Administration of Treasury at the Ministry of Finance confirmed the figures on Wednesday to La Libre and De Tijd.

Some of these assets belong to institutions not sanctioned by the European Union. Frozen assets amount to €65 billion, with an additional €193 billion in immobilised transactions, primarily from the Central Bank of Russia.

The money is not really held by Belgium but by the Belgium company Euroclear which acts as depository for  international central bank assets denominated in Euros.

Currently the EU is confiscating the interest, not the principal, of that money to distribute it to Ukraine. That step is likely already illegal and Russia will certainly use the courts to get it back.

There were also talks to invest the Russian assets in junk bonds with aim of achieving a higher yield:

Euroclear chief executive Valérie Urbain told the Financial Times that European Union plans to raise additional revenue from frozen Russian assets by investing them in higher-risk securities would amount to “expropriation.”

Urbain also warned that such a move could prompt “Russian retaliation in all sorts of forms,” as well as damage Euroclear’s reputation.

The majority of Russian assets frozen after Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine are currently held at Euroclear.

The E.U. has reportedly been discussing the possibility of transferring these assets to a special E.U.-administered fund that would make higher-risk investments. The goal is to generate greater returns to support Ukraine.

That move was blocked as no one was ready to accept the potential liability for it. Not only Belgium, but also Germany and other fiscal conservative states, have warned that such a move would endanger their own assets. Russia has announced that it will retaliate against any confiscation of its money. It threatens to confiscate whatever European companies own or hold in Russia. Those companies would then have to sue their own governments for cover of their losses.

Now a new idea has crept up. How it is supposed to work is not clear to me but it seems to have the support of the German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.

In a Financial Times op-ed Merz claims (archived):
Cont. reading: Another Crazy Idea On How To Steal Russia’s Assets: Make EU Taxpayers Pay For It

Two days ago, while I was moving this website, President Donald Trump made some rather ridiculous comment (emphasis added):

Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump – Sep 23, 2025, 18:55 utc

After getting to know and fully understand the Ukraine/Russia Military and Economic situation and, after seeing the Economic trouble it is causing Russia, I think Ukraine, with the support of the European Union, is in a position to fight and WIN all of Ukraine back in its original form. With time, patience, and the financial support of Europe and, in particular, NATO, the original Borders from where this War started, is very much an option. Why not? Russia has been fighting aimlessly for three and a half years a War that should have taken a Real Military Power less than a week to win. This is not distinguishing Russia. In fact, it is very much making them look like “a paper tiger.” When the people living in Moscow, and all of the Great Cities, Towns, and Districts all throughout Russia, find out what is really going on with this War, the fact that it’s almost impossible for them to get Gasoline through the long lines that are being formed, and all of the other things that are taking place in their War Economy, where most of their money is being spent on fighting Ukraine, which has Great Spirit, and only getting better, Ukraine would be able to take back their Country in its original form and, who knows, maybe even go further than that! Putin and Russia are in BIG Economic trouble, and this is the time for Ukraine to act. In any event, I wish both Countries well. We will continue to supply weapons to NATO for NATO to do what they want with them. Good luck to all!

DONALD J. TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Some people claimed that this uttering showed that Trump had changed his mind over Ukraine.

It was far from that. Trump was in fact mocking the delusional assessments General Keith Kellogg and General Dan Caine had given him:

Cont. reading: Why Trump’s Alleged Shift On Ukraine Isn’t One

News & views related to the war in Palestine …

News & views related to the war in Ukraine …

News & views not related to the wars in Ukraine and Palestine …

You have reached the new server home for Moon of Alabama.

MoA posts and comments published between September 6 and September 23 have not yet been uploaded here. (I depend on Typepad to do be able to do that.)

There are also still some minor design issues.

Please let me know of any problems with this web-site or the blog’s functionality.

Like any report of a war death this is a sad story. But I caught myself smirking at it.

Via Strana (machine translation):

In Kiev, after a Russian strike, the chief engineer of the Patriot air defense system Sakun was killed

In Kiev, after a Russian strike, the chief engineer of the Patriot air defense system unit, Denis Sakun, was killed. This follows from a petition on the website of the President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky.

He was approached by a relative of the deceased Yana Sakun, who demanded to be awarded the military title of Hero of Ukraine.

She writes that Denis Sakun was the chief engineer of the "anti-aircraft missile unit operating the latest air defense system."

The 'latest air defense system' was a U.S. manufactured Patriot battery. The U.S., and Ukraine, claim that these systems can shot down ballistic missiles. That is claimed here too but it also describes what happened just after that:

"During the massive rocket attack on Kiev, Lieutenant Colonel Sakun was on combat duty as part of a combat crew. The unit destroyed several ballistic missiles, one of which was supposed to hit the SAM positions. As a result of falling debris, a fire broke out. Despite the deadly threat, the officer personally rushed to save the equipment and put out the fire. Due to the detonation of the warhead of the downed missile, Denis Sakun was killed," the petition says.

The battery shot down a ballistic missile aimed at it. Unfortunately the war head of the destroyed missiles fell onto the Patriot battery and exploded.

Or, may be, not.

May be, just may be, the Patriot system failed to destroy the incoming missile which then hit its intended target.

The incident most likely happened on July 31.

Is this a sign of a shift in the global U.S. strategy?

Politico reports:

Pentagon plan prioritizes homeland over China threat
This marks a major departure from the first Trump administration, which emphasized deterring Beijing.

Pentagon officials are proposing the department prioritize protecting the homeland and Western Hemisphere, a striking reversal from the military’s yearslong mandate to focus on the threat from China.

A draft of the newest National Defense Strategy, which landed on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s desk last week, places domestic and regional missions above countering adversaries such as Beijing and Moscow, according to three people briefed on early versions of the report.

The move would mark a major shift from recent Democrat and Republican administrations, including President Donald Trump’s first term in office, when he referred to Beijing as America’s greatest rival. And it would likely inflame China hawks in both parties who view the country’s leadership as a danger to U.S. security.

“This is going to be a major shift for the U.S. and its allies on multiple continents,” said one of the people briefed on the draft document. “The old, trusted U.S. promises are being questioned.”

The National Defense Strategy (NDS) is written by the office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy which currently is held by arch-Realist Elbridge Colby.

The draft of the new NDS seems to be a contradiction of his previous believes:

Identifying as a realist, Colby believes China is the principal threat faced by the United States. He believes the US should shift its military resources to Asia to prevent a Chinese takeover of Taiwan. Colby supports reducing military aid to Ukraine. During the AUKUS review in 2025, Elbridge pressured Australia to confirm what role it would play in a war with China over Taiwan.

Colby wants to change U.S. defense policy from concentrating on China, as he had previously argued, to the Western Hemisphere. He may have seen new facts that have moved his opinion.

The failed attempt by the U.S. Navy to secure shipping through the Red Sea against attacks by Houthi in Yemen may have caused such rethink. As may have the loss of the US/NATO's proxy war against Russia in Ukraine.

Or did he compare videos of the 'woke' U.S. military parade in Washington DC (vid) earlier this year with the recent flawless one in China (vid)? The difference was indeed glaring. It demonstrated that the U.S. has no chance of winning in a war against China.

Trump seems to concede that China is winning:

Cont. reading: When The Pentagon Shifts Its Priorities Will U.S. Strategy Follow?

Welcome back.

Over the last 48 hours Typepad, the host and provider of the system MoonofAlabama.org is running on, has had an outage.

I am not yet aware of why this has happened. I intend to put up a new post later today.

News & views related to the war in Palestine …

News & views related to the war in Ukraine …

News & views not related to the wars in Ukraine and Palestine …

Fruitless discussions about 'security guarantees' for Ukraine continue. It will still take time until it is acknowledged that there is no way to implement them. Meanwhile other ideas are cropping in.

Some dimwits in Europe still think that they will be able to prevent Russia from taking care of its security interests:

On Thursday, French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer will co-host a meeting of the “coalition of the willing” comprised mostly of European allies. The discussions are expected to involve what potential security guarantees for Ukraine could look like and what type of peacekeeping force might be required.

The idea is to establish a setup that would prevent Russia from relaunching attacks on Ukrainian territory if a peace deal or cease-fire is established between the two countries.

President Donald Trump has signaled that the United States could play some kind of role in the effort, although he has ruled out putting American forces in Ukraine. [NATO Secretary-General Mark] Rutte on Wednesday also said the expectation was that the U.S would be involved in some form.

There will be no ceasefire in Ukraine. There will be a peace agreement in the form of a treaty. Ukraine and Russia sides will have to agree to its parameters. The Russian site will insist that Ukraine will be demilitarized and that no foreign forces will be stationed on its land.

European countries are unable to give any real 'security guarantees'. What they could provide is a minuscule force of a few thousand men stationed somewhere in Ukraine. Such a force would be eradicated within minutes should, after a peace agreement, the conflict in Ukraine reignite.

The Ukrainian regime has come to understand that. It has moved away from requesting 'security guarantees' in form of foreign soldiers. It instead wants a huge amount of foreign money to buy and make new weapons.

As the New York Times wrote yesterday:

Cont. reading: Ukraine’s Best Security Guarantee Is Finlandization

There is reason why the name of the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen is often mangled into von der Lying.

She is notoriously negligent with facts. Here she is caught outright lying to spread fake anti-Russian propaganda.

When I read the headline below, first published by the Financial Times, I immediately thought that something was very wrong with it.

Ursula von der Leyen’s plane hit by suspected Russian GPS interference (archived) – FT, Sep 1 2025

A suspected Russian interference attack targeting Ursula von der Leyen disabled GPS navigation services at a Bulgarian airport and forced the European Commission president’s plane to land using paper maps.

A jet carrying von der Leyen to Plovdiv on Sunday afternoon was deprived of electronic navigational aids while on approach to the city’s airport, in what three officials briefed on the incident said was being treated as a Russian interference operation.

GPS navigation is based on receiving radio signals from satellites. There is no way to selectively block or disturb these for just a single receiver. If someone would have manipulated GPS in that area it would effected every GPS receiver in the same geography. But I could not find any reports from Bulgaria that taxi drivers or other people using GPS navigation had any trouble with it. There was not a single tweet on X complaining about it.

“The whole airport area GPS went dark,” said one of the officials. After circling the airport for an hour, the plane’s pilot took the decision to land the plane manually using analogue maps, they added. “It was undeniable interference.”

The Bulgarian Air Traffic Services Authority confirmed the incident in a statement to the Financial Times. “Since February 2022, there has been a notable increase in [GPS] jamming and recently spoofing occurrences,” it said. “These interferences disrupt the accurate reception of [GPS] signals, leading to various operational challenges for aircraft and ground systems.”

The three anonymous "officials" the FT is quoting (which likely include von der Leyen) are lying. The statement by the Bulgarian Air Traffic Services Authority is just a general one. It does not say anything about the alleged incident.

GPS failure does not mean that one has to use "paper maps". (There are by the way no longer any "paper maps" on professional airliners. Maps are stored digitally.) Modern planes do not depend on GPS. They mainly use their Inertial Reference System. They can also navigate by following ground radar signals. Airports for regular landing of jets have Instrument Landing Systems installed. Short range radio signals from the ground will guide the plane onto the runway. There is no need to wait "for an hour".

As Simple Flying summarizes:

Cont. reading: Von der Leyen Is Lying About Russian GPS Interference

Obama, Biden and Trump have tried to hamper the rise of China. But Obama and Biden pushed Russia into the arms of China. And Trump managed to push India into the arms of Russia and China.

The absence of strategic thinking in the 'West' is palpable.

The ongoing meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization is, like similar meetings of BRICS, just one building stone of the new world order. Many more will be needed. A clear outline of the new order has yet to develop:

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday proposed the Global Governance Initiative (GGI) at the "Shanghai Cooperation Organization Plus" Meeting in Tianjin.

"I look forward to working with all countries for a more just and equitable global governance system and advancing toward a community with a shared future for humanity," Xi said when addressing the meeting.

He highlighted five principles for the GGI:

• First, we should adhere to sovereign equality.
• Second, we should abide by international rule of law.
• Third, we should practice multilateralism.
• Fourth, we should advocate the people-centered approach.
• Fifth, we should focus on taking real actions.

Nice concepts and words. I agree with them. But where is the beef? At some point muscles will be needed to back them up.

Two days ago Israel murdered the civilian government of Yemen:

Israel killed the prime minister of Yemen’s Houthi government and several cabinet ministers in a Thursday airstrike on Sanaa, delivering the first successful strike against senior officials in the Iran-aligned group’s leadership, Reuters reported.

Mahdi al-Mashat, head of the Houthi Supreme Political Council, confirmed Saturday that Prime Minister Ahmad Ghaleb al-Rahwi died in the attack, along with the energy, foreign and information ministers, according to sources, Reuters reported. Al-Mashat did not clarify whether Defense Minister Mohamed al-Atifi survived the strike.

Prime Minister Ahmad Ghaleb al-Rahwi was the head of the civilian administration. He was not even a Houthi or member of Ansar Islam and had no influence on military things.

The wholesale killing of the civilian government of a dirt-poor country should be a wake-up call. So should be this:

Eighty-six percent of those who voted among the 500-member International Association of Genocide Scholars backed the resolution declaring Israel’s "policies and actions in Gaza" had met the legal definition set out in Article II of the 1948 UN convention on genocide.

There is a real danger that such sick behavior will metastasize:

Cont. reading: A New Global Governance – But What Will, Or Can, It Do?

News & views related to the war in Palestine …

News & views related to the war in Ukraine …

Last week's posts on Moon of Alabama:

• Aug 25 – Ukraine – Zelenski Rejects Giving Land As Fascists Promise To Kill Him
• Aug 29 – Why 3,350 New Bombs For Ukraine Will Not Make A Difference
• Aug 30 – Prominent Ukrainian Fascist Shot Dead In Lviv
  Related:
  – 'A Shot to the Heart of Ukraine' – Andriy Parubiy and the "Bandera Lobby" – Moss Robeson
  – Six months before the murder, Parubiy asked for protection, but was refused (in Russian) – Strana
  – Pro-Western Ukrainian politician and former parliament speaker Andriy Parubiy shot dead in Lviv – Sky News

  – Mapping the Russia-Ukraine War Endgame – National Interest

• Aug 26 – Australia Breaks With Iran – Sign Of A New War Coming?
  Related:
  – West Asia is lurching toward war – Indian Punchline
  – Gallant Warns of Renewed Conflict: Israel Prepares for Second War with Iran – IWN

  – Europe’s Iran ‘Snapback’ Is a Dangerous Escalation – American Conservative
  – Why Europe’s ‘snapback’ miscalculation risks war, not diplomacy – Amwaj
  – Russia, China, reject attempt of E3 to Reimpose Sanctions on Iran over Nuclear Program – Juan Cole

• Aug 28 – They Voted For Brexit To Stop Immigration Only To Get More Of It
  Related:
  – Trump shocks UK business with stealth tariffs on 400 products (archived) – The Times
  – UK sought broad access to Apple customers’ data, court filing shows (archived) – Financial Times
  Document suggests British government’s ‘back-door’ demand was not limited to the company’s most secure iCloud service

—
Other issues:

Cont. reading: The MoA Week In Review – OT 2025-197

Earlier today the Ukraine Member of Parliament Andriy Parubiy was shot dead in Lviv (aka Lvov, Lemberg).

Parubiy was walking down a road near his home when a man with a motorcycle helmet and a delivery bag came up behind him. The man lifted a pistol and shot Parubiy seven or eight times before walking away.

Marta Havryshko @HavryshkoMarta – 11:13 UTC · Aug 30, 2025

Video of today's murder of MP Andriy Parubiy in Lviv. This is my neighborhood. Close to my home. The killer posed as a Glovo courier.
A manhunt has been launched to capture him.
Embedded video

About a year ago another prominent rightwing person, Iryna Farion, was also killed in Lviv.

Parubiy was the organizer and commander of the fascist militia during the Maidan coup in February 2014. During those days several snipers from Georgia, stationed at the Hotel Ukraina which was under opposition control, fired and killed policemen as well as protesters.

Video from those days showed Parubiy supervising the situation as the snipers, with their weapon cases, were leaving the hotel.

bigger

Following the Maidan coup Parubiy's involvement in violence continued:

Cont. reading: Prominent Ukrainian Fascist Shot Dead In Lviv

Despite the best efforts no western made weapon has so far been able to give Ukraine an edge on the battlefield.

The search for wonder weapons to help Ukraine win the NATO proxy-war against Russia thus continues.

On August 20 the Wall Street Journal reported of a new type of weapon to enter this never ending story.

Hidden down in a piece which discussed how the Pentagon Has Quietly Blocked Ukraine’s Long-Range Missile Strikes on Russia (archived) one could find these remarkable paragraphs:

The administration this past week approved the sale of 3,350 Extended Range Attack Munition air-launched missiles, or ERAMs, which are set to arrive in Ukraine in about six weeks, two U.S. officials said. The $850 million arms package, mostly funded by European nations and which includes other items, was delayed until after Trump’s summits with Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Several U.S. officials said use of the ERAM, with a range between 150-280 miles, would require Ukraine to seek approval from the Pentagon. The State Department didn’t respond to a request for comment.

At that point there was little known about that type of weapon.

The official announcement by the Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) of such a weapon delivery was published only yesterday:

Cont. reading: Why 3,350 New Bombs For Ukraine Will Not Make A Difference