A drone armed with a warhead hit the outer shell of Ukraine’s Chernobyl nuclear plant, briefly starting a fire, in an attack Kyiv blamed on Russia.

Ukraine’s nuclear ghosts have been stirred up again after a drone armed with a warhead hit the protective outer shell of the plant at Chernobyl, the site of the world’s worst nuclear accident. The strike on Friday did not breach the plant’s inner containment shell and radiation levels did not increase.

The outer shell that was struck is a protective cover built in 2016 over a heavy concrete containment structure. Soon after the 1986 disaster, the inner layer (in which there was no indication of a breach on Friday morning), was placed on the plant’s fourth reactor. The containment shells seek to prevent radiation leaks.

A Russian drone struck the former nuclear power plant at Chernobyl in an attack overnight into Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said.

CHERNOBYL NUCLEAR POWER STATION, Ukraine (AP) — A drone armed with a warhead hit the protective outer shell of Ukraine’s Chernobyl nuclear plant early Friday, punching a hole in the structure and briefly starting a fire, in an attack Kyiv blamed on Russia. The Kremlin denied it was responsible.

Russia has been accused of 'nuclear blackmail' as an expert warns a drone attack at Chernobyl power station will lead to rising radiation levels

Ukrainian emergency services confirm that a drone strike at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, which Kyiv blamed on Moscow, caused an explosion, but that no radiation has been detected. Fragments of the drone remain scattered around the facility.

A drone armed with a warhead hit the outer protective shell of Ukraine’s Chernobyl nuclear plant early Friday, damaging the structure and briefly starting a fire.