The US considers aid to Ukraine and Israel a priority and is working hard to use frozen Russian assets.

Financial and military support to Ukraine and aid to Israel are priorities for the White House, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said. She emphasized that the White House has made that clear to Congress.

At the same time, senior US officials have stepped up their efforts to force Western governments to use $300B in frozen Russian Central Bank reserves to finance aid to Ukraine.

As the WP writes, opposition has intensified against the US and European governments as they face new internal political obstacles in their efforts to finance Ukrainian defense needs.

However, “even staunch supporters of the idea believe it will take months, if not a year, for the money to reach Kyiv. In addition, most of the Russian reserves are stored in Europe, where central banks are wary of the consequences of the seizure of Russian money on their economies. If Washington acted alone, it could use only the $5B held in the US,” the WP notes.