A drone pierced the outer shell of Ukraine's Chernobyl nuclear plant. Radiation levels are normal

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.

Radiation levels at the shuttered plant in the Kyiv region — site of the world's worst nuclear accident — have not increased, according to the U.N. 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 U.S. 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.

The impact and fire also damaged equipment in a maintenance garage, Ukraine’s state nuclear regulator said in a report.

There was “no immediate danger" to the facility or risk of radioactive leaks, according to Oleksandr Kharchenko, director of the Kyiv-based Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air.

“The protective structure is strong and reliable, though it has been damaged," he told The Associated Press.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied Russia was responsible. “There is no talk about strikes on nuclear infrastructure, nuclear energy facilities. Any such claim isn’t true. Our military doesn’t do that,” Peskov said in a conference call with reporters.

It was not possible to independently confirm who was behind the strike. Both sides frequently trade blame when nuclear sites come under attack.

Peskov alleged that the strike was a “false flag” attack staged by Ukraine to incriminate Russia and to thwart efforts to end the war through negotiations between Trump and Putin.

“It’s obvious that there are those (in the Ukrainian government) who will continue to oppose any attempts to launch a negotiation process, and it’s obvious that those people will do everything to try to derail this process,” Peskov said.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova described the drone attack as a “reckless” act by Kyiv and noted that Russia had been part of the international effort to build the structure that was hit.

Ukraine planned to provide detailed information to U.S. officials about the Chernobyl strike during the Munich Security Conference that started Friday, the head of Ukraine’s Presidential Office, Andrii Yermak, wrote on his Telegram channel.

In Munich, Zelenskyy told reporters that he thinks the blow against Chernobyl was a “very clear greeting from Putin and Russian Federation" to the conference.

In other remarks Friday, the Ukrainian president said his country wants security guarantees before any talks to end the war. He also said he would agree to meet in-person with Putin only after a common plan is negotiated with Trump.

IAEA chief Rafael Grossi said on X that the strike and the recent increase in military activity near Zaporizhzhia “underline persistent nuclear safety risks,” adding that the IAEA remains “on high alert.”

The IAEA said its personnel at the site responded within minutes of the strike and that no one was hurt.

“Radiation levels inside and outside remain normal and stable,” the IAEA said on X.

Speaking on Telegram, Zelenskyy said the Chernobyl strike showed that Putin "is certainly not preparing for negotiations” — a claim Ukrainian officials have repeatedly made.

“The only state in the world that can attack such facilities, occupy the territory of nuclear power plants, and conduct hostilities without any regard for the consequences is today’s Russia. And this is a terrorist threat to the entire world,” he wrote.

“Russia must be held accountable for what it is doing,” he added.

Novikov reported from Kyiv, Ukraine.

This story has been updated to correct a typo in the name of the head of the IAEA. He is Rafael Grossi, not Rossi.

Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, damages of sarcophagus that covers the destroyed 4th reactor of Chernobyl nuclear power plant is seen from inside following a Russian drone attack in Chernobyl, Ukraine, Friday, Feb. 14, 2025. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)

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, Friday, Feb. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

Fragments of an explosive device are displayed by Ukrainian authorities after a drone attack at the former Chernobyl nuclear power plant, Ukraine, Friday, Feb. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

Ukrainian serviceman stands on a vehicle with anti-aircraft gun after a drone attack at the former Chernobyl nuclear power plant, Ukraine, Friday, Feb. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

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 in Chernobyl, Ukraine, Friday, Feb. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

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 in Chernobyl, Ukraine, Friday, Feb. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

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 in Chernobyl, Ukraine, Friday, Feb. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, a searchlight illuminates a hole in the roof of a damaged sarcophagus, that covers the destroyed 4th reactor of Chernobyl nuclear power plant, following a Russian drone attack in Chernobyl, Ukraine, Friday, Feb. 14, 2025. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)

In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, damaged sarcophagus that covers the destroyed 4th reactor of Chernobyl nuclear power plant is seen from inside following a Russian drone attack in Chernobyl, Ukraine, Friday, Feb. 14, 2025. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Becky Pepper-Jackson finished third in the discus throw in West Virginia last year though she was in just her first year of high school. Now a 15-year-old sophomore, Pepper-Jackson is aware that her upcoming season could be her last.

West Virginia has banned transgender girls like Pepper-Jackson from competing in girls and women's sports, and is among the more than two dozen states with similar laws. Though the West Virginia law has been blocked by lower courts, the outcome could be different at the conservative-dominated Supreme Court, which has allowed multiple restrictions on transgender people to be enforced in the past year.

The justices are hearing arguments Tuesday in two cases over whether the sports bans violate the Constitution or the landmark federal law known as Title IX that prohibits sex discrimination in education. The second case comes from Idaho, where college student Lindsay Hecox challenged that state's law.

Decisions are expected by early summer.

President Donald Trump's Republican administration has targeted transgender Americans from the first day of his second term, including ousting transgender people from the military and declaring that gender is immutable and determined at birth.

Pepper-Jackson has become the face of the nationwide battle over the participation of transgender girls in athletics that has played out at both the state and federal levels as Republicans have leveraged the issue as a fight for athletic fairness for women and girls.

“I think it’s something that needs to be done,” Pepper-Jackson said in an interview with The Associated Press that was conducted over Zoom. “It’s something I’m here to do because ... this is important to me. I know it’s important to other people. So, like, I’m here for it.”

She sat alongside her mother, Heather Jackson, on a sofa in their home just outside Bridgeport, a rural West Virginia community about 40 miles southwest of Morgantown, to talk about a legal fight that began when she was a middle schooler who finished near the back of the pack in cross-country races.

Pepper-Jackson has grown into a competitive discus and shot put thrower. In addition to the bronze medal in the discus, she finished eighth among shot putters.

She attributes her success to hard work, practicing at school and in her backyard, and lifting weights. Pepper-Jackson has been taking puberty-blocking medication and has publicly identified as a girl since she was in the third grade, though the Supreme Court's decision in June upholding state bans on gender-affirming medical treatment for minors has forced her to go out of state for care.

Her very improvement as an athlete has been cited as a reason she should not be allowed to compete against girls.

“There are immutable physical and biological characteristic differences between men and women that make men bigger, stronger, and faster than women. And if we allow biological males to play sports against biological females, those differences will erode the ability and the places for women in these sports which we have fought so hard for over the last 50 years,” West Virginia's attorney general, JB McCuskey, said in an AP interview. McCuskey said he is not aware of any other transgender athlete in the state who has competed or is trying to compete in girls or women’s sports.

Despite the small numbers of transgender athletes, the issue has taken on outsize importance. The NCAA and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committees banned transgender women from women's sports after Trump signed an executive order aimed at barring their participation.

The public generally is supportive of the limits. An Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll conducted in October 2025 found that about 6 in 10 U.S. adults “strongly” or “somewhat” favored requiring transgender children and teenagers to only compete on sports teams that match the sex they were assigned at birth, not the gender they identify with, while about 2 in 10 were “strongly” or “somewhat” opposed and about one-quarter did not have an opinion.

About 2.1 million adults, or 0.8%, and 724,000 people age 13 to 17, or 3.3%, identify as transgender in the U.S., according to the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law.

Those allied with the administration on the issue paint it in broader terms than just sports, pointing to state laws, Trump administration policies and court rulings against transgender people.

"I think there are cultural, political, legal headwinds all supporting this notion that it’s just a lie that a man can be a woman," said John Bursch, a lawyer with the conservative Christian law firm Alliance Defending Freedom that has led the legal campaign against transgender people. “And if we want a society that respects women and girls, then we need to come to terms with that truth. And the sooner that we do that, the better it will be for women everywhere, whether that be in high school sports teams, high school locker rooms and showers, abused women’s shelters, women’s prisons.”

But Heather Jackson offered different terms to describe the effort to keep her daughter off West Virginia's playing fields.

“Hatred. It’s nothing but hatred,” she said. "This community is the community du jour. We have a long history of isolating marginalized parts of the community.”

Pepper-Jackson has seen some of the uglier side of the debate on display, including when a competitor wore a T-shirt at the championship meet that said, “Men Don't Belong in Women's Sports.”

“I wish these people would educate themselves. Just so they would know that I’m just there to have a good time. That’s it. But it just, it hurts sometimes, like, it gets to me sometimes, but I try to brush it off,” she said.

One schoolmate, identified as A.C. in court papers, said Pepper-Jackson has herself used graphic language in sexually bullying her teammates.

Asked whether she said any of what is alleged, Pepper-Jackson said, “I did not. And the school ruled that there was no evidence to prove that it was true.”

The legal fight will turn on whether the Constitution's equal protection clause or the Title IX anti-discrimination law protects transgender people.

The court ruled in 2020 that workplace discrimination against transgender people is sex discrimination, but refused to extend the logic of that decision to the case over health care for transgender minors.

The court has been deluged by dueling legal briefs from Republican- and Democratic-led states, members of Congress, athletes, doctors, scientists and scholars.

The outcome also could influence separate legal efforts seeking to bar transgender athletes in states that have continued to allow them to compete.

If Pepper-Jackson is forced to stop competing, she said she will still be able to lift weights and continue playing trumpet in the school concert and jazz bands.

“It will hurt a lot, and I know it will, but that’s what I’ll have to do,” she said.

The Supreme Court stands is Washington, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

FILE - Protestors hold signs during a rally at the state capitol in Charleston, W.Va., on March 9, 2023. (AP Photo/Chris Jackson, file)