Ukraine and Russia: What you need to know right now

* Ukrainian troops mounting a counter-offensive have broken through Russian defences in several sectors of the front line near the city of Kherson, a senior adviser to Zelenskiy said. * Ukraine's armed forces have heightened the rate of artillery fire across southern Ukraine, and long-range precision strikes have continued to disrupt Russian resupply, Britain's defence ministry said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has urged Russian troops to flee for their lives after his forces launched an offensive to retake southern Ukraine, but Moscow said it had halted the attack in its tracks and inflicted heavy losses on Kyiv. FIGHTING

* At least five people have been killed and seven wounded in Russian shelling of Kharkiv, Ukraine's second largest city, Mayor Ihor Terekhov said. * Ukrainian troops mounting a counter-offensive have broken through Russian defences in several sectors of the front line near the city of Kherson, a senior adviser to Zelenskiy said.

* Ukraine's armed forces have heightened the rate of artillery fire across southern Ukraine, and long-range precision strikes have continued to disrupt Russian resupply, Britain's defence ministry said. Reuters was unable to independently verify the battlefield reports.

NUCLEAR PLANT * Russia's Defence Ministry said the radiation situation at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant remains normal, after accusing Ukrainian forces of firing two artillery shells into the territory of the facility. Reuters could not immediately confirm the Russian reports.

* A team from the U.N. nuclear watchdog (IAEA) is heading to the Zaporizhzhia plant, the agency's chief said, as Russia and Ukraine traded accusations of shelling in its vicinity. * Thousands of people fleeing Russia-occupied areas of south Ukraine are arriving in a city near the Zaporizhzhia site despite fears of a radiation leak from fighting.

DIPLOMACY, ECONOMY * France accused Russia of using energy supply as a "weapon of war" as Russian gas giant Gazprom reduced deliveries to one of its main utilities and prepared to halt flows along a major pipeline to Germany.

* Technological problems caused by Western sanctions on Russia are all that are hampering the smooth flow of Russian gas exports to Europe via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. * Germany and France have issued a joint warning against a proposed European Union ban on tourist visas for Russians, saying such a step, advocated by some other member states, would be counter-productive.

QUOTES "Heavy fighting is going on. Our military is working around the clock. Liberation of the Kherson region is coming soon," Vitaly Kim, governor of the Mykolaiv region, told Ukrainian TV.