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.

For the first time, a Russian projectile directly struck a structure containing a nuclear reactor. Moscow has increasingly been targeting Ukraine's nuclear infrastructure.

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