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.

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.

A view of the containment vessel that protects the remains of reactor number four at the former Chernobyl nuclear power plant and built to contain radiation, after a drone attack, Ukraine on Feb 14. (AP)

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.

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.

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.