From: slider@anashram.com   
      
   [### - seems like not a lot happening last week on the escalation front   
   other than this one item below... while finland & sweden's chances of   
   joining nato fades as turkey objects...]   
      
      
   The Biden administration is preparing to step up the kind of weaponry it   
   is offering Ukraine by sending advanced, long-range rocket systems that   
   are now the top request from Ukrainian officials, multiple officials say.   
      
   The administration is leaning toward sending the systems as part of a   
   larger package of military and security assistance to Ukraine, which could   
   be announced as soon as next week.   
      
   Senior Ukrainian officials, including President Volodymyr Zelensky, have   
   pleaded in recent weeks for the US and its allies to provide the Multiple   
   Launch Rocket System, or MLRS. The US-made weapon systems can fire a   
   barrage of rockets hundreds of kilometers — much farther than any of the   
   systems Ukraine already has — which the Ukrainians argue could be a   
   gamechanger in their war against Russia.   
      
   Another system Ukraine has asked for is the High Mobility Artillery Rocket   
   System, known as HIMARS, a lighter wheeled system capable of firing many   
   of the same types of ammunition as MLRS.   
      
   Russia has in recent weeks pummeled Ukraine in the east, where Ukraine is   
   outmanned and outgunned, Ukrainian officials have said.   
      
   The Biden administration waivered for weeks, however, on whether to send   
   the systems, amid concerns raised within the National Security Council   
   that Ukraine could use the new weapons to carry out offensive attacks   
   inside Russia, officials said.   
      
   On Friday, after CNN first reported the news, Russians warned that the   
   United States will “cross a red line” if it supplies the systems to   
   Ukraine.   
      
   “The US intends to discuss the issue of supplying Ukraine with these   
   weapons as soon as next week,” Olga Skabeeva, a prominent Russian TV host,   
   said on her high-profile show on the state network Rossiya-1. “At the   
   present moment, the issue is being addressed by the US presidential   
   administration. So now, we are not even talking about tactical weapons   
   anymore, but about the operational-tactical weapons.”   
      
   She continued: “The US MLRS can launch shells over 500 kilometers. And if   
   the Americans do this, they will clearly cross a red line, and we will   
   record an attempt to provoke a very harsh response from Russia.”   
      
   https://keyt.com/news/national-world/ukraine/2022/05/26/us-prepa   
   ing-to-approve-advanced-long-range-rocket-system-for-ukraine/   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)