Ukraine and Russia: What you need to know right now

Russia accuses Ukraine of shelling the plant. * Ukrainian forces have had "successes" in three areas of the Russian-occupied region of Kherson, a Ukrainian regional official said, two days after Kyiv announced the start of a southern counter-offensive to retake territory.

United Nations inspectors arrived at the southern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia on Wednesday on a mission to prevent an accident at a nearby Russian-occupied nuclear power plant and to try to stabilise the situation after weeks of shelling in the vicinity. DIPLOMACY, ECONOMY

* Germany's chief of defence warned the West not to underestimate Moscow's military strength, saying Russia has the scope to open up a second front should it choose to do so. * European Union foreign ministers decided to make it more expensive and lengthier for Russians to obtain visas to travel to the bloc but stopped short of agreeing to the EU-wide visa ban that Ukraine and several member states had called for.

* Russia halted gas supplies via a major pipeline to Europe, intensifying an economic battle between Moscow and Brussels and raising the prospect of recession and energy rationing in some of the region's richest countries. * Russia blamed sanctions for the supply halt.

* The Biden administration will announce additional security aid for Ukraine shortly, the White House said. * Sweden has provided Ukraine with a new defence aid package containing artillery rounds, Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov said.

NUCLEAR PLANT, FIGHTING * The head of the Ukrainian military administration of Nikopol across the Dnipro river from the Zaporizhzhia plant said Russian forces were shelling nearby to try to give the IAEA the impression that Ukraine was attacking it. Russia accuses Ukraine of shelling the plant.

* Ukrainian forces have had "successes" in three areas of the Russian-occupied region of Kherson, a Ukrainian regional official said, two days after Kyiv announced the start of a southern counter-offensive to retake territory. * Russia's defence ministry said Ukraine's attempts to mount a counter-offensive had failed, with their forces suffering heavy losses in equipment and men.

Reuters was unable to verify the battlefield reports. QUOTE

"Russia is very well capable of expanding the conflict regionally," German General Eberhard Zorn told Reuters. (Compiled by Philippa Fletcher and Angus MacSwan)