FOG BLOG RUSSIAN INVASION OF UKRAINE LOG: CANADA SENDS $25 MILLION IN MILITARY AID TO UKRAINE:

Canada sending $25-million worth of additional military equipment to Ukraine........Putin puts nuclear forces on high alert, escalating tensions.......The Trudeau government has announced it is sending more military equipment to Ukraine as the country deals with an invasion from Russia.

Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly and Defence Minister Anita Anand made the announcement at a press conference on Sunday afternoon.

Joly said the government is sending $25-million worth of non-lethal military equipment to Ukraine after the country requested more help.

“They need helmets, body armour, gas masks, and night vision gear,” Joly said, and the equipment will be routed through Poland to get there as quickly as possible.......KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — President Vladimir Putin dramatically escalated East-West tensions by ordering Russian nuclear forces put on high alert Sunday, while Ukraine’s embattled leader agreed to talks with Moscow as Putin’s troops and tanks drove deeper into the country.

Putin cited “aggressive statements” by NATO in issuing a directive to increase the readiness of his country’s nuclear weapons — a step that raised fears that the invasion of Ukraine could boil over into nuclear war, whether by design or mistake.

The Russian leader is “potentially putting in play forces that, if there’s a miscalculation, could make things much, much more dangerous,” said a senior U.S. defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Amid the mounting tensions, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office announced that the two sides would meet at an unspecified location on the Belarusian border, where a Russian delegation was waiting Sunday.

But the Kremlin’s ultimate aims in Ukraine — and what steps might be enough to satisfy Moscow — remained unclear.

The fast-moving developments came as scattered fighting was reported in Kyiv, battles broke out in Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, and strategic ports in the country’s south came under assault from Russian forces..