CHERNOBYL NUCLEAR POWER STATION, Ukraine, Feb 15, (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. Radiation levels at the shuttered plant in the Kyiv region - site of the world's worst nuclear accident - have not increased, according to the UN International Atomic Energy Agency, which said the strike did not breach the plant's inner containment shell.

The IAEA did not attribute blame, saying only that its team stationed at the site heard an explosion and was informed that a drone had struck the shell. Fighting around nuclear power plants has repeatedly raised fears of a nuclear catastrophe during three years of war, particularly in a country where many vividly remember the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, which killed at least 30 people and spewed radioactive fallout over much of the Northern Hemisphere.

The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which is Europe’s biggest, has occasionally been hit by drones during the war without causing significant damage. The strike came two days after President Donald Trump upended US policy on Ukraine, saying he would meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss ending the war.

The move seemed to identify Putin as the only player that matters and looked set to sideline Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, as well as European governments, in any peace talks. The hit on Chernobyl occurred as Ukraine is being slowly pushed back by Russia’s bigger army along parts of the 1,000-kilometer (600-mile) front line and is desperately seeking more Western help.

Zelenskyy said a Russian drone with a high-explosive warhead hit the plant's outer shell and started a fire, which has been put out. The shell was built in 2016 over another heavy concrete containment structure, which was placed on the plant’s fourth reactor soon after the 1986 disaster. Both shells seek to prevent radiation leaks. The Ukrainian Emergency Service provided a photograph that showed a hole in the roof of the outer shield, which is a massive steel-and-concrete structure weighing some 40,000 tons (36,000 metric tons) and tall enough to fit Paris’ Notre Dame Cathedral inside.