Ukraine and Russia: What you need to know right now

Local Russian-installed official Vladimir Rogov wrote on Telegram on Saturday that Ukrainian forces were shelling the plant. * Russia, in a daily briefing, said it had taken control of Udy, a village in the northeastern Kharkiv region.

Ukrainian forces reported heavy Russian shelling and attempts to advance on several towns in the eastern region of Donetsk that has become a key focus of the near six-month-old war, but said they had repelled many of the attacks. FIGHTING/CASUALTIES

* "Every Russian soldier who either shoots at the (Zaporizhzhia nuclear) plant, or shoots using the plant as cover, must understand that he becomes a special target for our intelligence agents, for our special services, for our army," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said. * The exiled mayor of Enerhodar, where the Zaporizhzhia plant is located, said on Telegram on Sunday the city had been shelled from the suburbs, causing civilian casualties. Local Russian-installed official Vladimir Rogov wrote on Telegram on Saturday that Ukrainian forces were shelling the plant.

* Russia, in a daily briefing, said it had taken control of Udy, a village in the northeastern Kharkiv region. * Particularly heavy fighting has focused on the village of Pisky, near Donetsk Airport, the British Defence Ministry said in its daily intelligence bulletin.

* Reuters could not confirm battlefield reports independently. * Three civilians have been killed and two wounded by an explosive device while swimming in the Black Sea in the southern Ukrainian region of Odesa despite warning signs not to do so, police said. Authorities have shut sea beaches due to mines or artillery shells from the war.

NUCLEAR POWER PLANT * Russia said it would do "everything necessary" to allow specialists from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to visit the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine amid fears for its safety due to shelling.

DIPLOMACY/AID * North Korean state media said Russian President Vladimir Putin told leader Kim Jong Un the two countries would expand "comprehensive and constructive" relations.

* Any possible seizure of Russian assets by the United States will completely destroy Moscow's bilateral relations with Washington, TASS quoted the head of the North American Department at the Russian foreign ministry as saying. * New Zealand is sending 120 military personnel to Britain to help train Ukrainians in front-line combat, the government said.

ECONOMY * The U.N.-chartered ship Brave Commander will depart Ukraine for Ethiopia in the coming days after it finishes loading more than 23,000 metric tonnes of wheat in Pivdennyi, a U.N. official said. It will be the first humanitarian food aid cargo bound for Africa under the U.N.-brokered grains access deal.

* The first ship to leave Ukraine under a July 22 deal to resume grain exports from the country was approaching the Syrian port of Tartous on Sunday, two shipping sources said, after the vessel had been sailing with its transponder off. (Compiled by Lincoln Feast and Mark Heinrich)