[### - 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-preparing-to-approve-advanced-long-range-rocket-system-for-ukraine/