Biden’s Administration Approves Sending Multiple Launch Rocket Systems to Ukraine — NYT

The systems in question could be M31 GMLRS, short for Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System, the report said

© Dmitry Kirsanov/TASS

NEW YORK, May 28. /TASS/. US President Joe Biden’s administration has approved sending multiple launch rocket systems to Ukraine, the New York Times reported on Friday, citing unidentified US officials.

The systems in question could be M31 GMLRS, short for Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System, the report said.

The transfer, which will be part of the next weapons package for Ukraine, will be announced next week, the officials said. The M31 GMLRS has the range of 70 km to 500 km depending on the ammunition. The system can be equipped with satellite-guided missiles.

M31 GMLRS is a tracked vehicle, and further weapons packages could include wheeled High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, or HIMARS.

The Pentagon said on Friday that the US hadn’t yet made a final decision about shipping MLRS’s to Ukraine. US news media have reported the US didn’t make these shipments yet in an effort to prevent the conflict from escalating.

On February 24 Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a special military operation in response to a request for help by the heads of the Donbass republics. He stressed that Moscow had no plans of occupying Ukrainian territories, but aims to demilitarize and de-Nazify the country. The US and its allies retaliated by imposing sweeping sanctions on Russia and boosted arms supplies to Kiev. Russian Ambassador to the US Anatoly Antonov has warned the militarization of Ukraine by the West is a direct threat for European and global security.