Russian artillery fired at Ukrainian towns across the river from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, local officials said, while reports of shelling around the plant fuelled fears of a radiation disaster.

FIGHTING

* Britain's defence ministry said it was not yet clear how Russia would achieve an announced large increase in its armed forces, but the boost was unlikely to substantially increase its combat power in Ukraine.

* Russian air forces hit workshops at a Motor Sich factory in the Zaporizhzhia region of Ukraine where helicopters were being repaired, Russian state news agency RIA quoted the defence ministry as saying.

* The defence ministry also said Russian forces destroyed fuel storage facilities in Ukraine's Dnipro region, Interfax news agency reported.

* Reuters could not verify battlefield reports.

DIPLOMACY, ECONOMY

* European Union foreign ministers meeting later this week, are unlikely to unanimously back a visa ban on all Russians, as would be needed to put in place such a ban, EU foreign policy chief told Austria's ORF TV.

* The United States said that Russia did not want to acknowledge the grave radiological risk at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, adding that was the reason it blocked a nuclear non-proliferation treaty deal's final draft.

* Dell Technologies, a vital supplier of servers in Russia, said it had ceased all Russian operations after closing its offices in mid-August, the latest Western firm to exit.

* Six ships laden with food left the Ukrainian port of Odesa, the spokesman for the regional administration, Serhiy Bratchuk, said on Telegram app.

* Merchant sailors will be allowed to leave Ukraine if they receive approval from their local military administrative body, the Ukrainian prime minister said, a move that could ease the process of shipping grain.

* Germany may nationalise the energy business abandoned by Russia's Gazprom in April. The government has set up a holding company to carry out a possible nationalisation of Gazprom Germania, Welt am Sonntag reported.

Reuters