Zelensky hails 'very important' military result in Russia

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has hailed a "very important" result in overnight military activity on Russian territory, without referring specifically to an attack on a major arsenal northwest of Moscow.

"A very important result was achieved last night on Russian territory and such actions weaken the enemy," Mr Zelensky said in his nightly video address.

"I thank everyone involved. Such precision is truly inspiring."

It comes as the Ukrainian military administration in Russia's Kursk region said that Russia's counteroffensive to retake territory captured by Ukrainian forces in the region has been "stopped".

Russia earlier this month said it had seized several villages back from Ukraine in the Kursk region, where Ukraine has held on to swathes of land since its surprise incursion in early August.

"They tried to attack from the flanks, but they were stopped there," spokesman Oleksiy Dmytrashkivsky said.

"The situation was stabilised and today everything is under control, they are not successful," he said.

Mr Dmytrashkivsky also said there were "several thousand" Russian civilians in areas occupied by Ukrainian troops.

"In some settlements there are more than 100 people, more than 200, more than 500," he said.

Russia has not said how many of its civilians remain in the Ukraine-controlled areas, saying only that around 130,000 have fled.

The Ukrainian military official admitted "some minor success" by Russia.

"The Russians entered one of the settlements. They started fighting for another settlement, but that was it," he said.

Mr Dmytrashkivsky also claimed that Russian strikes on the area as it tries to re-seize the land have killed "23 civilians" since the end of August, saying they are "dying with the Ukrainian military."

He said the civilians are "not allowed to leave" because "the situation must be controlled" but are allowed to "move around" the area.

They can "visit each other, eat there, unite somewhere, dig potatoes now, work in the garden," Mr Dmytrashkivsky said.

The area held by Ukraine has been described as forested and largely rural small settlements.

He said the only way that the civilians could be allowed to leave to Russian-controlled territory would be if Ukraine and Russia "agree, through international organisations that deal with these issues, to open a green corridor under the supervision of observers."

Ukraine this week invited the UN to verify the situation of the area it holds in the Kursk region, infuriating Russia.

Mr Dmytrashkivsky said food into the area is brought from the neighbouring Ukrainian Sumy region.

"The Sumy regional administration allocates funds for bread on a weekly basis. The armed forces provide water, the administration gives food packages," he said.

"Nothing works there, no shops, no pharmacy, nothing."

Ukrainian drone attack causes earthquake-sized blast in Russia

A large-scale Ukrainian drone attack on Russia triggered an earthquake-sized blast at a major arsenal in the Tver region, forcing the evacuation of a nearby town, war bloggers and some media reported.

Unverified video and images on social media showed a huge ball of flame blasting high into the night sky and multiple detonations thundering across a lake about 380km west of Moscow.

NASA satellites picked up intense heat sources emanating from an area of about 14 square kilometres at the site in the early hours and earthquake monitoring stations picked up what sensors thought was a small earthquake in the area.

"The enemy hit an ammunition depot in the area of Toropets," said Yuri Podolyaka, a Ukrainian-born, pro-Russian military blogger.

"Everything that can burn is already burning there (and exploding)."

Russian state media have in the past reported that a major arsenal for conventional weapons was located at the site of the blasts.

State media, which is now subject to military censorship laws, was muted in its reporting.

Igor Rudenya, the governor of the Tver region, said that Ukrainian drones had been shot down, that a fire had broken out and that some residents were being evacuated.

He did not say what was burning.

Mr Rudenya later said the situation in Toropets was stable as of midday local time (10am Irish time) and that evacuated residents could return.

The fire had been put out and there were no recorded fatalities, he said.

A source in Ukraine's SBU state security service told Reuters the drone attack had destroyed a warehouse storing missiles, guided bombs and artillery ammunition.

Russia and Ukraine each reported dozens of enemy drone attacks on their territory overnight, with Russian forces advancing in eastern Ukraine.

The size of the main blast shown in the unverified social media video was consistent with 200-240 tonnes of high explosives detonating, said George William Herbert of the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey in California.

A Toropets chat room on the Russian social media site VK was flooded with messages of support from other parts of the country and offers of help to people fleeing the town.

Some people were asking whether buildings at specific addresses were still standing.

"People, does anyone know what's happened to Kudino village??? They told me nothing is left of our house," posted one woman.

Another woman replied: "It's horror there."

Kudino is a village 4.5km northeast of Toropets.

Some war bloggers questioned how drones could trigger such large explosions at what was thought to be a highly fortified facility.

According to an RIA state news agency report from 2018, Russia was building an arsenal for the storage of missiles, ammunition and explosives in Toropets, a 1,000-year-old town, which has a population of just over 11,000.

Dmitry Bulgakov, then a deputy defence minister, told RIA in 2018 that the facility could defend weapons from missiles and even a small nuclear attack. Mr Bulgakov was arrested earlier this year on corruption charges, which he denies.

"It (the concrete facilities) ensures their reliable and safe storage, protects them from air and missile strikes and even from the damaging factors of a nuclear explosion," RIA quoted Mr Bulgakov as saying at the time.