Ukraine updates: US firm blocks access to satellite imagery

Ukraine has been dealing with a number of setbacks in recent weeks, as the Trump administration presses Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy to agree to a peace deal with Russia to end the war in his country.

But there are several challenges to achieving a deal to end the war. Follow our latest blog here.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio held a call with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii
Sybiha on Friday and told him President Donald Trump was determined to end the Russia-Ukraine war as soon as possible, the State Department said.

"The Secretary underscored President Trump is determined to end the war as soon as possible and emphasized that all sides must take steps to secure a sustainable peace," the State Department said in a statement after the call.

Rubio held a separate call to discuss the war earlier in the day with French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot, according to the State Department. 

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron have spoken to "compare notes" on their work to get a lasting peace in Ukraine on Friday evening, Downing Street said.

The two leaders have been leading efforts to form a "coalition of the willing" to protect Kyiv. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has accused Russia of showing a lack of interest in peace in the face of another massive airstrike. 

"Today this Russian attack on our energy system and civilian facilities was as routine for Russia as ever, as mean and cynical as ever, as if there had been no efforts by Ukraine and the world to end this war," Zelenskyy said in his daily address.

Ukraine is interested in a quick peace, he stressed. "And every day new Russian strikes and reality itself prove that Russia must be forced to peace," Zelenskyy said.

The Ukrainian president also mentioned "the most intensive work so far... with President Trump's team at various levels," including many phone calls. 

Zelenskyy described their agenda as "peace as soon as possible, security as reliable as possible," adding that Ukraine is committed to the most constructive approach.

US aerospace firm Maxar Technologies confirmed it had disabled access to its satellite imagery for Ukraine, as US President Donald Trump's administration suspended intelligence sharing with Kyiv.

In a statement, Maxar said it has contracts with the US government and dozens of allied and partner nations, and one of those contracts is GEGD (the Global Enhanced GEOINT Delivery program), a US government program that provides access to commercial satellite imagery collected by the United States.

"The US government has decided to temporarily suspend Ukrainian accounts in GEGD," Maxar said, referring further questions to the US National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, which confirmed the action.

Maxar said the block only refers to the US GEGD contract, it does not impact other non-US government Maxar programs and contracts. This means that Maxar is not necessarily blocking all satellite imagery to Ukraine, despite the US suspension.   

Earlier, several users, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed the blocking of access to the Ukrainian military blog Militarnyi.

According to Militarnyi, Maxar was probably the leading provider of commercial satellite imagery to users in Ukraine, particularly for pinpointing Russian troop movements or assessing damage. 

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this post may have insinuated that Maxar is blocking all satellite imagery to Ukraine. The suspension only refers to the US-funded GEGD contract. 

US President Donald Trump said he finds it "easier" to deal with Russia than with Ukraine in efforts to end the war between those countries.

"I'm finding it more difficult frankly to deal with Ukraine and they don't have the cards," he said. "It may be easier dealing with Russia."

Trump also said that he trusts Russian President Vladimir Putin and understands why Putin's forces launched a massive bombing campaign across Ukraine overnight.

"I actually think he's doing what anybody in that position would be doing that right now," Trump said.

Earlier, Trump has ordered a pause in US military and intelligence aid to Kyiv.

He added that Zelenskyy, who has been pushing for Western security guarantees before agreeing to a ceasefire with Russia, risks losing all US involvement.

"I don't know that they want to settle. If they don't want to settle, we're out of there because we want them to settle. I'm doing it to stop death," Trump said.

Three Bulgarians have been found guilty by a London court of taking part in a sophisticated UK-based spy ring, which targeted journalists and passed sensitive information to Russia over a three-year period.

London-based Katrin Ivanova, Vanya Gaberova and Tihomir Ivanchev were found guilty at the Old Bailey of spying on an "industrial scale" that endangered lives and national security.

They were led by suspected Russian agent Jan Marsalek, an Austrian businessman wanted by Interpol after the collapse of the German payment processing company Wirecard. His whereabouts are unknown.

Prosecutors said that the suspects carried out operations in the UK, Austria, Spain, Germany and Montenegro between 2020 and 2023.

It was alleged that they spied on a US air base in Germany where Ukrainian troops were said to be training, and had discussed kidnapping or killing opponents of the Russian state.

The suspects are due to be sentenced in May, and could face jail terms of up to 14 years.

US President Donald Trump said he was "strongly considering" imposing sanctions, including on banks, and tariffs on Russia until a ceasefire and peace deal is reached with Ukraine.

"Based on the fact that Russia is absolutely 'pounding' Ukraine on the battlefield right now, I am strongly considering large scale Banking Sanctions, Sanctions, and Tariffs on Russia until a Cease Fire and FINAL SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT ON PEACE IS REACHED," Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.

"To Russia and Ukraine, get to the table right now, before it is too late," he added.

The US president's threats to Moscow come amid strained relations between Washington and Kyiv.

Trump has paused military aid and intelligence sharing with Ukraine to pressure Kyiv to accept a ceasefire deal after an explosive Oval Office meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy a week ago.

Open-source maps showed on Friday that Ukrainian troops that carried out an incursion into Russia's Kursk region last summer and seized territory there are now almost surrounded by Russian forces.

The situation for the Ukrainian troops in the region has sharply deteriorated over the last few days, with supply lines largely cut off amid a Russian counteroffensive that has almost cut the Ukrainian force in two, the maps show.

The development means Ukrainian forces may have to make a retreat back into Ukraine.

"The situation (for Ukraine) is very bad," Pasi Paroinen, a military analyst with the Finland-based Black Bird Group, told Reuters news agency.

"Now there is not much left until Ukrainian forces will either be encircled or forced to withdraw. And withdrawal would mean running a dangerous gauntlet, where the forces would be constantly threatened by Russian drones and artillery," he said.

Neither the Ukrainian nor the Russian military have confirmed details of the situation in Kursk.

Sir Richard Shirreff, a retired British general and former second-in-charge of NATO's European Command, has told DW that Europe and Canada must step up support to Ukraine after the US suspended its aid for Kyiv.

"European nations and Canada have just got to ramp up immediately to fill the gap. And this means taking risk. It means giving immediate money to the Ukrainians," Shirreff said.

He said Europe, Canada and NATO should have done so earlier, though he said it was "better late than never."
 
"The reason this didn't happen three years ago is because of a sort of ostrich-like head in the sand about the real threat posed by (Russian President Vladimir) Putin to European security as a whole," he said.

Shirreff also accused Europe of being "naive" for relying on US security protection, and said it could no longer count on US support after Washington voted alongside Russia and North Korea against a European motion at the United Nations condemning Russia's aggression.

"I say this with real sadness in my heart because I've worked alongside, served alongside Americans and have the greatest admiration for the American military, but I have to say now that we cannot rely on America as an ally," he said.

An opinion poll published Friday showed Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy's approval rating rising by 10 percent points since US President Donald Trump called him a "dictator" and then later had a shouting match with him in the Oval Office. 

Around 67% of the Ukrainians questioned in the poll by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) said they trusted Zelenskyy, up from 57% a month earlier.

Support for Zelenskyy was slightly lower among Ukrainians living in the east of the country.

Researchers said the results suggest that the effect of recent US attacks on Zelenskyy's leadership has been to consolidate support for him. 

"At least for now, we are witnessing a process of unification of society against the backdrop of new challenges facing Ukraine," the institute's executive director, Anton Grushetsky, said.

He suggested that many Ukrainians saw Trump's denigration of Zelenskyy as "an attack on all of Ukraine and all Ukrainians."

In February, Trump called Zelenskyy a dictator for postponing elections that would have taken place if Russia had not invaded the country, provoking a conflict that Trump also blamed on the Ukrainian leader.

Under the Ukrainian constitution, no elections are permitted to be held while the country is under martial law, which was imposed at the start of the Russian invasion in February 2022.

The Kremlin on Friday said the European Union was  indulging in "confrontational rhetoric" after the bloc's leaders agreed to boost the bloc's defenses at a crisis summit.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists that the EU was "positioning Russia as the main enemy."  

Peskov said the discussion on EU defense was "a process that we are watching closely" in view of the fact that Russia was being seen as the major threat. 

 "This, of course, could potentially be a topic of deep concern for us, and there could be a need to take appropriate measures in response to ensure our security," he said.

"And, of course, such confrontational rhetoric and confrontational thinking that we are now seeing in Brussels and in European capitals is seriously at odds with the mood for finding a peaceful settlement around Ukraine," Peskov added.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called for a truce in the air and at sea after massive Russian attacks overnight that hit Ukrainian energy facilities.

"The first steps to establishing real peace should be forcing
the sole source of this war, Russia, to stop such attacks," Zelenskyy said on the Telegram app on Friday.

"Ukraine is ready to go the way of peace, and it is Ukraine that wants peace from the very first second of this war. The task is to force Russia to stop the war," he wrote.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan also gave the call his backing.

"We support the idea of establishing a ceasefire as soon as possible and stopping attacks in the air and at sea as a confidence-building measure between the parties," Erdogan told an online meeting. 

This comes as Washington builds up pressure on Russia and Ukraine to come to a peace agreement amid fears that US President Trump might call for territorial concessions from Kyiv in line with Moscow's demands.

Ukraine's air force said on Friday it had deployed French Mirage fighter jets for the first time as it repelled massive Russian attacks on energy facilities across the country.

It said it had downed 34 of at least 58 missiles and 100 of 194 drones launched at Ukraine overnight.  

France delivered the Mirage 2000-5 fighter jets to Ukraine last month. Ukrainian pilots received months of training in France in flying the aircraft. French President Emmanuel Macron pledged in June 2024 to provide Kyiv with the planes.

The jets have reportedly been adapted to ward off Russian electronic warfare tactics.

The Russian Defense Ministry has said it carried out precision strikes on gas and energy infrastructure it claimed was supporting Ukraine's "military industrial complex."

Ukrainian Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko said the attacks punished civilians by destroying energy infrastructure. 

At a crisis gathering in Brussels, European leaders have discussed plans to shore up their countries' defense capabilities while continuing to support Ukraine in its fight against a full-scale Russian invasion.

Fears are growing in Europe that Russia, emboldened by its war in Ukraine, might decide to attack EU countries as the US under President Donald Trump gives signals that it is losing interest in upholding the Western solidarity that has prevailed since the end of World War II.

Watch DW's report on the Brussels meeting.